Kansas City,
26
January
2017
|
12:36 PM
America/Chicago

KSHB 41: Kansas City organ donation at 'crisis' level

Organ donation around the metro is needed now more than ever

Organ Donation Statistics

More than 600 people are in Kansas City metro hospitals awaiting life-saving organ transplants. One hundred of those on average each year do not live to receive the organ.

“I would describe it as a crisis actually,” said St. Luke’s Hospital’s liver transplant director Dr. Eddie Island.

A new person is added to an organ wait list every 10 minutes nationally, but only 48 percent of U.S. adults have signed up to be a donor. The supply is increasingly not meeting the need.

You can become an organ donor at organdonor.gov.

Amanda Reeves advocated for her 14-month-old son, Rowen, who is in need of a new heart at Children's Mercy. He is one of 33 patients at Children's Mercy waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. 

 

 

 

Watch the full story via KSHB 41.

Learn more about the Brendan Tripp Elam Transplant Center at Children's Mercy.