Editorial: Donation is gift of life

The math surrounding organ transplant is amazing.

In 1953, there had never been a successful transplant of one person’s organ into another person’s body. Today, 67 years later, it happens every day.

According to the World Health Organization, about 100,800 people have the life-saving procedure annually. About 70% of those surgeries are kidney transplants, and almost half of those are from living donors. Another 20% are liver transplants, 14% from living donors. Hearts are replaced. So are lungs and pancreases.

The WHO numbers don’t even include other gifts — bone and skin and tendon grafts, corneas and more.

Pittsburgh has been at the center of transplantation for decades.

Dr. Thomas Starzl began his work in the field at the University of Colorado in 1962 — a few years before Pittsburgh’s first kidney transplant in 1966 — but his move here in the 1980s pumped new life into groundbreaking work. Since 1981, the hospitals of UPMC alone have conducted more than 20,000 transplant procedures.

But in recent years, the number of deceased donor transplants has fallen at UPMC. Although living donation is up, it isn’t enough to cover the need as some of the most critical organs can’t come from a live donor.

It’s a nationwide issue. According to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, while more than 113,000 people are in need of organs, fewer than 17,000 donors were available.

Part of it is about suitability and matching. Sometimes it’s because of someone dying in a way that makes their donation impossible. But tragically, while 95% of Americans support and are moved by donation, only 58% are signed up to give their organs.

People can do more. They can give a gift that is both selfless and entirely of self. Not everyone can take a bullet for another person or run into a burning building. But everyone can sign a donor card, check the box on a driver’s license and communicate to family members that this is the last generous act they would like to do.

If living donation can rise 120% at UPMC, deceased donation can absolutely increase enough to put a dent in the 20 people per day who die in America waiting for a transplant.

On Wednesday, Pennsylvania observed its first Donor Day, with registration drives at Allegheny General Hospital, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, UPMC Hamot in Erie and Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown.

That’s a great start, because the math for every donor is even more amazing. Just one person can save eight lives. Multiply that by all those people who support donation but haven’t registered and the potential is exponential.