So look at the bright side…
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America's epidemic of drug overdose deaths has produced a dramatic rise in the number of desperately needed organs for people on transplant waiting lists, statistics show.
Nationally, the number of donors who died of overdoses rose by nearly 270 percent – from 230 to 848 – between 2006 and 2015, according to data gathered by the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. In New England alone, the number rose from eight to 54 – or by 575 percent – over the last five years, according to statistics compiled by the New England Organ Bank.
"It's a huge increase," says Alexandra K. Glazier, the New England Organ Bank's president and chief executive officer.
Some of the donors are among the roughly 120 million Americans who have previously consented to organ donation. In other cases, families have consented after a loved one's death, in the hope that their loss might mean salvation to someone in dire need of an organ.
"It's a silver lining to what is absolutely a tragedy," Glazier says.
Unlike deaths from a car crash or stroke, overdose deaths in many cases are anything but sudden or unexpected, says Helen M. Nelson, the New England Organ Bank's senior vice president of organ donation services.
"Many of the families we encounter have been going through this addiction for several years," she says. "It's almost as if the families were preparing for this death; many feel great comfort in knowing that some good has come out of it."
The magnitude of the nation's addiction problem is staggering. In 2014, there were almost 19,000 deaths from prescription opioids, up from 16,000 in 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. More than 60 percent of overdose deaths in 2014 involved an opioid, a category that also includes the illegal drug heroin. Seventy-eight Americans die of opioid overdoses each day.
There are likely regional variations in the number of organs harvested from drug overdose victims, but the data are not yet available, says Elling Eidbo, chief executive officer of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, which represents the nation's organ banks. "We are all actually racing each other to get that information," Eidbo says.
Nearly 80,000 people in the U.S. are actively awaiting organs. About 20 people on transplant waiting lists die each day because no suitable organ could be found, according to UNOS statistics.
Overdose victims represent a new category of organ donors and haven't replaced those who die of strokes, auto accidents or other causes. They have also introduced a new calculus into an already challenging question of organ selection.
Some hospitals, and transplant recipients, are wary of using organs from people who died of drug overdoses because they fear the organs carry hepatitis C or other infectious diseases.
"We had to convince them that these organs should be used because the risk is low," Nelson says. She notes "this is a new donor population" that includes "young people, healthy people, kids in college [and] employed people."
Nelson says the risks can be minimized by thorough testing and treatment, now available for such viral diseases as hepatitis C. President Barack Obama's Hope Act also made possible the transplantation of organs from one HIV-positive person to another.
The New England Organ Bank recently arranged for such a transplant to a patient at Johns Hopkins University.
Nonetheless, Nelson says, not everyone is convinced that the organs are safe.
"We've been able to place them in New England very successfully," she says. "That may not be true in other parts of the country."
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