When Organ Donation Goes Wrong

More than a hundred thousand people in the U.S. are on the national transplant list waiting for a life-saving organ. Hospitals across the country transplant more than 45,000 organs each year and there are rules and protocols about how it is supposed to go. But what happens when the process fails?

The New York Times investigative reporter Brian Rosenthal joins us to discuss some recent cases where doctors discovered that patients were still alive and conscious when the donation process was underway. He talks with host Maiken Scott about a relatively new method of procuring organs, called circulatory death donation, and new pressures on procurement organizations that could be jeopardizing safety.

Rosenthal and his colleague Julie Tate recently published an investigation in The New York Times called, “A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk.”