Organs from drug overdose victims could save the lives of patients on transplant waiting list

The widening tragedy that is the U.S. drug-overdose epidemic could have an improbable silver lining: for the 120,000 desperate Americans on the waiting list for a donated organ, the line could get a little shorter.

In 2000, only 149 organs from donors who suffered a fatal drug overdose were transplanted into patients waiting for a replacement kidney, heart, liver or lungs. In 2016, overdose victims donated 3,533 such organs for transplant.

For many transplant patients, the increased availability of organs from those who die of drug intoxication has translated into slightly improved survival rates at the five-year mark, according to new research.

Among all prospective organ donors, the youngest and healthiest have generally been those who become brain dead due to trauma — falls, drownings, electrocution, vehicle crashes and violent injuries.

http:// www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-organ-donations-overdoses-20180417-story.html