3,000th Heart Transplanted from a New England Donor
New England Donor Services coordinates the donation of the 3,000th heart for transplant from donors in the region.
(BOSTON) – This week, the 3,000th donated heart was recovered in New England for use in a life-saving transplant. New England Donor Services (NEDS), the federally-designated non-profit organization responsible for the recovery of organs and tissues for transplant in the region, first began recovering hearts 40 years ago in 1982 and reached the 3,000 milestone on June 1.
“Through the generosity of the donating public, New England Donor Services has recovered 3,000 life-saving hearts for transplant from organ donors in the region,” said New England Donor Services President and CEO, Alexandra Glazier. “New England Donor Services’ dedicated staff work across New England 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to support families of donors through the donation process, while also coordinating the surgical recovery, preservation, transport and allocation of organs to patients on the national waitlist.”
NEDS leads the nation in the recovery of hearts from donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors, recently identified by the National Academy of Science as an important strategy to address the organ shortage. Since recovery of hearts from this type of donor began in December of 2019, NEDS has recovered 27 hearts with this cutting-edge procedure, the most of any OPO in the US.
In 2021, NEDS set a record for organ donors in the region, recovering organs from 451 deceased individuals, leading to 1,228 organ transplanted.
New England Donor Services (NEDS) was founded by transplant pioneer and Nobel Prize winning surgeon Dr. Joseph Murray in 1968 as the InterHospital Organ Bank, later know as New England Organ Bank. NEDS coordinates organ and tissue donation in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and the eastern counties of Vermont.
“Each year, the donation and transplant community finds new ways to innovate to expand the number of lives saved through the gift of life. Most recently, the expertise of NEDS staff and changes in transplant technology allow the recovery of transplantable hearts from more medically complex donors who previously would not have been considered suitable for transplant. This continuous improvement has directly led to many more lives saved.”
The first successful heart transplant occurred in South Africa on December 3, 1967, when Dr. Christian Barnard transplanted a heart from a deceased 25-year-old woman into a 53-year-old patient dying of chronic heart disease. The first successful heart transplant in the US was performed by Dr. Norman Shumway at Stanford Hospital in California on January 6, 1968.
NEDS is responsible for one of the 57 Organ Procurement Organizations that make up the nation’s donation system. NEDS works with over 200 hospitals and serves 14 million people in the region, screening nearly 50,000 potential donor referrals from hospitals annually. NEDS works sensitively with donor families, leading donation authorization discussions, maintaining medical support of potential donors, coordinating recovery surgeries, allocating organs according to the national transplant waiting list and directing transport of organs to transplant centers and tissues to processors.