In 2015, 30,973 organ transplants were performed in the United States. This is a record for such transplants and is the highest ever recorded in history, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
The number of organ transplants has increased gradually over the years, up a modest 5 percent since 2014. The increase has been achieved because of two major factors: 1. The number of people that have considered and made an organ donation has grown; and 2. The logistics around the extraction, transportation and transplanting of an organ has greatly improved - to the extent that virtually no organs are refused or thrown away due to logistical reasons, according to Time.
The OPTN is a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that coordinates with hospitals, institutions and individuals (in the transplant market and eco-system) and is largely responsible for ensuring that transplants take place efficiently across the U.S. A large portion of the transplants are of livers and kidneys, according to Action News 6ABC.
The remarkable thing about the number of successful transplants is that this is still only 25 percent of the total number (121,700) of organs that patients require in the U.S. at this time. This is the reason that a number of health experts suggest that ordinary people become organ donors and radically change the daunting demand-supply mismatch in this sector. Most organizations working in this sector have ensured that donating organs is very easy as well as efficient. A person may even donate an organ after his or her death, according to USA Today.
