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

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.