Every day 33 U.S. patients die while waiting for an organ transplant, but medical researchers say tapping into "less-than-perfect" organs could double the number of organs procured, according to The Washington Post.
7 insights on the organ donation system:
1. About 115,000 people are waiting on the organ transplant list. Patients are often deemed too sick, old, or their medical conditions too complicated, to be organ donors, The Post reports.
2. The Post analyzed 2.7 million death records from 2016 and found about 27,000 people met the established criteria for organ donation, more than twice the number of those who actually donated that year.
The majority of untapped donors were over the age of 50. About 40 percent of donors were not declared brain-dead, which forces local transplant officials to take them off life support and wait for their hearts to stop. This process can take a long time and often damages other organs.
3. Surgeons conducting the transplant reject donors over the age of 75. Research cited by The Post indicates there is fault in this logic and experts "should be persuaded" to expand the types of donors pursued.
4. About 45,000 people die outside of hospitals and are unlikely to provide viable organs for transplant.
5. About 231,000 people did not have a condition that disqualified them from being an organ donor. However people suffering from most cancers, some infections and heart disease are unsuitable organ donors.
6. People who die from head injuries and suffocation are good donors, according to The Post, because it leaves their organs intact.
7. There are less than 10,000 registered organ donors. In 2016, the transplant system recovered organs from fewer than half of suitable donors.
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