WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved to shut down organ donation groups in Miami on Thursday, calling it a “fail” due to performance, dangerous practices and paper-like errors.
The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations, or one of the nation’s nonprofit organizations that coordinate organ recovery from deceased donors and help match them with patients on the national transplant waiting list.
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The administration cited an investigation that discovered a 2024 incident in which an unspecified mistake caused a surgeon to decline a heart that was donated for a patient awaiting surgery.
During a news briefing, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that the donated donations were included, sending the donated organs to the wrong location, including a shortage of staff.
The Life Alliance, a division of the University of Miami Health System, can appeal the decision. If it were closed, it would be the first time the federal government has uncertified the OPO.
The Life Alliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than 100,000 Americans are on the transplant list, with thousands waiting for them as they don’t have enough donations to make enough donations. Last year there was more than 48,000 transplants, records and the vast majority from donors who died.
Changes to the transplant system have been underway for years to increase donations, reduce waste of potentially usable organs, and address other concerns. It includes some new safeguards after the complaints last year that another OPO did not promptly stop preparing for donations when some patients showed signs of life, urging some people to opt out of the donor registry. Organ donation can only proceed after the hospital declares that someone has died. By law, OPOs cannot be involved in their decisions.
On Thursday, Oz tried to reassure him that he would become a donor.
“Congress thoughtfully and aggressively pursued a horrific story that chilled American enthusiasm for donating organs. Today we are here to say that this system is safe.
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