ederal Investigation Reveals Serious Failures in Organ Donation System
Over 48,000 organ transplants happen each year in the U.S., but alarming new evidence shows that some donations begin before patients are truly dead More than 103,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, but safety shortcuts in donor evaluation have raised serious questions about how the system operates In one case, a man declared brain-dead woke up on the operating table moments before his organs were to be harvested — exposing a massive failure in protocol The investigation uncovered that nearly 1 in 3 “approved not recovered” (ANR) donations showed neurological signs incompatible with legal death New reforms now require hospitals to halt organ procurement if any sign of life is present and mandate full reporting to federal regulators