Who gets first dibs on transplanted liver? Rules may change

[Clark]

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/08/14/organ-tranplant?refid=0

Who gets first dibs on transplanted liver? Rules may change
Rob Stein

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'We Have This Huge Disparity.'

"Either it's a jackpot and you have very, very easy access to a lifesaving liver — if you lived in Indiana or if you lived in Louisiana or Florida," says Dr. David Mulligan, a transplant surgeon at Yale University. "But if you live in California or New York or New England the chances are significantly worse."

That's because the country is divided into 11 regions and some regions have more livers for transplant than others.

"So in the Southeast, for example, or in parts of the Midwest, where there's a higher death rate," Mulligan says, "there are more donor organs."

And the sickest patients in each region get the first crack at every liver, which means patients in the parts of the country that have the most livers don't have to be as sick to get a transplant as people who live in other places.
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UNOS is holding a public hearing in Chicago on Sept. 16 to discuss how best to distribute the limited supply of livers for transplantation.