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Most people simply don't have the money to pay for multiple extensive evaluations at far-flung locations. The only catch, Paschke said, is that health insurance policies often cover only one medical evaluation to get on one transplant center list. Paschke said UNOS requires transplant centers to inform patients that they are allowed to do "multiple listings" at transplant centers in multiple geographic areas to increase the odds of being matched to a liver. The national average waiting time for a transplant is about a year, but it can average as little as a few months at some centers, organ experts said. Last year, 1,481 people died waiting for a donor liver, almost all of which come from the recently deceased. "For a liver, they're going to look in the local and regional areas before they look nationally."Īccording to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, 15,771 people are currently waiting for a liver in the United States. "The local area is not a state, it's that donor service area of that OPO," explained Anne Paschke, spokesperson for the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). When a liver becomes available, the nearest of the 49 national Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) will run a database search and algorithm to match the liver to people on all the transplant centers within that OPO's designated local and regional area. Then if he or she is determined a good candidate, the patient will be put on that transplant center's waiting list. When a person needs a liver in the United States, the patient must go to a hospital with a transplant center for an extensive medical, mental and financial consultation. It's called multiple-listing, a practice some would say is unethical," said Arthur Caplan, co-chair of the United Nations Task Force on organ trafficking and chair of the department of medical ethics at University of Pennsylvania. While relocating to a new hospital for better odds and or signing up for multiple transplant centers isn't breaking UNOS policies, ethicists and patients have previously criticized the practice as unfair. Jobs said today that he hoped "all of us can be as generous and elect to become organ donors." "He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available," a June 23 hospital statement read. Hospital Defends Steve Jobs' Liver TransplantĪ statement by the hospital indicated that every aspect of Jobs' transplant operation was in accordance with the Transplant Institute policies and United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) policies. They added that his money and mobility may have improved his odds either by going to an area of the country where there are more organ donors and fewer patients waiting, or by signing up at multiple transplant centers. Still, at the time of the news, organ transplant experts and medical ethicists agreed that the choice would have cut Jobs' waiting time for an organ. James Eason, has been cited as another reason why Jobs would have made the trip from California to Tennessee for the operation. The past experience and high success rate of the surgeon involved in the procedure, Dr. The revelation sparked a debate over whether the wealthy are able to use their resources to game the national organ donation system. However, on June 23, officials at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tenn., confirmed to the media, with Jobs' permission, that he received the organ transplantation surgery at that center. "I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs, and I wouldn't be here without such generosity."Īt the time of Jobs' return to work in June, representatives from Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., declined to answer specific questions from or confirm reports that Jobs, 54, had received a liver transplant. "As some of you know, about five months ago I had a liver transplant," Jobs said.
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Jobs' public appearance was his first since his return to work following his medical leave of absence during the first six months of the year. 9, 2009 - Apple CEO Steve Jobs received a liver transplant from an organ donor in his 20s who died in an auto accident, the technology mogul told an audience at a Wednesday media event in San Francisco.