US Achieves Record of 1 Million Organ Transplants

First Kidney Transplant in 1954
Over 41,000 Cases Last Year... Twice as Many as 25 Years Ago

The photo is not related to any specific expression in the article.
[Image source=Pixabay]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] The number of organ transplants in the United States has surpassed one million.

On the 10th (local time), US ABC News and the UK Guardian reported that they confirmed this fact through the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the only nonprofit organ procurement and transplant network in the United States.

The one-millionth transplant took place on the 9th (local time), but detailed information about the transplanted organ or the patient has not been disclosed.

The world's first and the United States' first organ transplant surgery was performed in 1954 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

At that time, 23-year-old Ronald Herrick donated a kidney to his identical twin brother Richard, who was suffering from chronic kidney failure. Richard lived for another eight years afterward, and Ronald survived until the age of 79. The surgeon who performed the operation, Joseph Murray, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this surgery.

Until the early 1980s, the number of organ transplants was low, but since then, the success of transplants of organs other than kidneys, such as the heart, liver, and pancreas, and the advent of anti-rejection drugs have led to a rapid increase in transplants.

In the United States, more than 500,000 transplants have been performed since 2007. Last year, 41,000 transplants were conducted, marking the highest annual number of transplants and double the number from 25 years ago.

However, despite remarkable progress, there are still many challenges in organ donation.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases in October 2020, many kidneys are unnecessarily discarded. Meanwhile, 5,000 people die each year while waiting for their turn for a transplant.

US ABC News urged more people to participate in organ donation, stating, "One person can save up to eight lives through organ donation."

Meanwhile, Korea's first organ transplant surgery was a kidney transplant for a patient with chronic kidney disease, performed in March 1969 at St. Mary's Hospital in Myeongdong, Seoul.

The number of registered organ donation hopefuls in Korea is only about 4% of the population, showing a very low participation rate compared to 60% in the United States.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.