The U.S. Opioid Crisis Is So Devastating, It's Made More Organs Available for Transplant
Gizmodo --------- New research on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights yet another impact of the opioid crisis: More people have gotten the organ donations they’ve needed in recent years because of more deaths caused by drug abuse and overdose. The research also suggests these donated organs aren’t any less safe than organs from a person who didn’t die of drug overdose. The researchers looked at all reported organ donations that occurred in the US over a 17-year-period, from 2000 to 2016, and compared them to a database of donations made in several European countries over the same time. During those years, 103,805 brain-dead adult donors in the US donated at least one solid organ, while 27,661 deceased adults in the European countries donated organs. To learn more click on the picture below to read the article.