Organ transplant lists are shrinking

[rcjordan]

Opioid overdose deaths are why the waiting list for organ transplants is shrinking

https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17880392/opioid-crisis-public-health-liver-transplant-organs

[Simon Dog]

My kidney came from a drug overdose, though I was not told which drug.

[MooseMom]

Yep.  Don't know how to feel about this.

[KarenInWA]

Yep.  Don't know how to feel about this.

MooseMom - how do you mean? My 2nd kidney came from one of these donors. All I know is he died of brain death, and the only reason I know he was a he is because my nurse on the floor told me when I asked. He was 27. I look at it this way - the opioid epidemic is tragic and ugly. I know my area is no different from other areas around the country, although I have heard from others who go elsewhere that the homeless problem is not nearly as out there as it is here. It's really, really bad. But rather than their death be a waste, at least their legacy of life can live on in their recipients.

I still need to work on a letter to the family, I haven't even started on that yet. I am now 10 months post.

KarenInWA

[Cupcake]

I was like you, Moosemom, thinking ew! Drug overdose people might carry diseases. But my nephrologist was not so dismissive and pointed out that opioid overdoses happen (often) in otherwise young and healthy people. Donor testing has improved and the risk of a false negative test for HIV is very low. Thankfully I'm getting my sister--in-law's kidney in a month and her only vice is wearing killer shoes! Maybe I'll develop a taste for high heels!

[Paul]

Having lived in a building full of junkies, and even on several occasions eaten dinner in a crack den, I would sat that with the (major) exception of diseases caused by sharing needles, junkies are less likely to get diseases that clean people. They tend to spend most of the day asleep, not going out, not doing anything to bring them into contact with sick people. At one point there were nine junky males in the building, only one ever had a female visitor and she was his sister. I don't think any were gay, and was fairly sure none ever had any sexual contact while living there (too stoned to care about sex, most of the time).

If I was still living in those conditions, I think I would try to get as many as possible to mention in their will that I get first option on their kidneys, then wait for the drugs to knock them off.

[Paul]

Rereading my last post I realise that it might get slightly misinterpreted: When I said "I don't think any were gay" I meant that as evidence (since they had no female visitors) that they probably did not have a sex life. I was NOT trying to infer that gay men are more likely to carry diseases.

[MooseMom]

I was like you, Moosemom, thinking ew! Drug overdose people might carry diseases. But my nephrologist was not so dismissive and pointed out that opioid overdoses happen (often) in otherwise young and healthy people. Donor testing has improved and the risk of a false negative test for HIV is very low. Thankfully I'm getting my sister--in-law's kidney in a month and her only vice is wearing killer shoes! Maybe I'll develop a taste for high heels!

Just to be clear, I am not sure how to feel about this because on the one hand, I'm very glad to hear that the list is shrinking because there are more donors, but on the other hand, there are more donors because of the opioid crisis, and this is so very sad. 

And yes, your neph is right, again, sadly.  That so many otherwise healthy young people are dying in this way instead of getting to live a full life, well, 

[Simon Dog]

Donor testing has improved and the risk of a false negative test for HIV is very low.

NAT (nucleic acid testing) can detect HIV within a few days of exposure, whereas the old test is weeks or months.

[enginist]

I'd take a high-risk kidney any day.  More people die every year from an overdose--about 70,000--than from kidney disease--about 50 or 60,000.  Sometimes the families of an overdose victim won't make the organs available for transplant.