Western Pennsylvania sets record for organ, tissue transplants in 2019

Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia set a record for organ and tissue transplants in 2019, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) announced.

CORE, a nonprofit that coordinates organ, tissue and cornea donation, facilitated 661 transplants in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia last year — an increase from 2018 by nearly 10%.

CORE is the organ procurement organization designated by the federal government to serve the area.

There were 253 deceased organ donors in the region, nearly 20% more than in 2018. Of those, 198 donors were in Western Pennsylvania. That’s up from 2018, when there were 162.

CORE also saw a 4% increase in the number of tissue and cornea donors in 2019.

“This record-breaking year is a culmination of the commitment and the energy shown by our hospital partners, our board, volunteers, staff and friends,” Susan Stuart, president and CEO of CORE, said in a statement.

The news came shortly after the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) also reported a 10.7% increase in the number of deceased donors across the country, equating to almost 40,000 transplants. There was also a record number of living donor transplants: 7,400, according to UNOS.

The country is facing a stagnation of available deceased donor organs. Many transplant centers, including UPMC, are putting special focus into living donor services in an attempt to close the gap. CORE facilitated 226 living donors in the region, up from 191 in 2018.

But when it comes to increasing deceased donor transplants, breaking the record was not easy. Colleen Sullivan, director of communications at CORE, said it is difficult to convince people to register as donors, and CORE must provide a lot of education around misinformation around organ donation.

Sullivan said CORE interacts with people who fear they won’t receive the same type of care if they are a registered donor and that hospitals will not perform all life-saving efforts. Some people believe they won’t be able to have an open casket funeral, or that organs only go to wealthy recipients.

Most people in the region don’t oppose organ donation, Sullivan said. They just don’t think to register.

“The discrepancy is that we have 90% that supports donation, and yet we have only 49.4% of eligible people as designated donors in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia,” Sullivan said.

But in 2019, several transplant centers in the region increased the number of transplants performed with deceased donor organs, CORE reported. Additionally, West Virginia University Medical Center was added as a new heart transplant center.

“That’s an incredible thing, because they had not had the capabilities there in West Virginia,” Sullivan said.

Last year was also the first year that the Donate Life PA Act was law in Pennsylvania. The law is an update to the state’s 1994 organ donation law, which was spearheaded by CORE. The law safeguards the opportunity for donation for grieving donor families, according to a news release. The state also celebrated its first Donor Day on Jan. 8.

In 2020, CORE is set on improving 2019 figures even more. As of Wednesday, there are 112,693 people in the U.S. waiting for transplants, including 7,196 in Pennsylvania, according to UNOS data.

CORE wants to boost the number of registered organ donors in the region to 5 million, which would equate to about 50% of the eligible donor population.

“We’ll continue to do what we need to do,” Sullivan said. “Our job is not done until the waiting list is gone.”