Organ Donation Campus Challenge, and a Transplant Surgeon's Unique Perspective!

Hello everyone, and happy new year! Welcome to this month's blog post, let's get started.

The Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge!

The Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge is the "nation's largest college organ donor drive competition!" It provides an opportunity to give school rivalries and competitive spirit a new purpose by saving and healing lives. Basically, colleges across Michigan compete to see which college can sign up the most organ donors! It's a great way to use college rivalry to save lives. Once again, Wayne State University won this year! Congratulations to them!

A Transplant Surgeons Take On the Opiod Epidemic

As you probably know, America is going through an opioid epidemic of huge proportions. A transplant surgeon provides a unique perspective on the effects it's had on his work. Here are some highlights:

“In 2016, we did more organ transplants and there were more organ donors than there had ever been in the United States…. [The increase] is almost completely related to the opioid epidemic.”

“The best data that I’ve seen is from New England…. In 2010, they received about four percent of their organ donors from overdose. In 2015, that number was about 27 percent. It’s almost a seven or eightfold increase over five years. Certainly, it has been remarkable, and I’ve seen that in my day-to-day work.

It's a great article, so please check it out here: http://michiganradio.org/post/opioid-epidemic-transplant-surgeon-s-point-view-0