Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital are fighting against a proposal from the United Network of Organ Sharing to broaden liver transplant boundaries. There are currently 11 boundaries within the United States, and the UNOS wants to bring it down to 8 boundaries.
The plan is meant to balance wait times out across the nation, but would take away from the Midwest region, which has high donations rates, and move them to the coast of low donation rates. It would add to the wait time for people in the Midwest.
Recent liver transplant recipient Jeff Magill of Kansas City waited 681 days for the liver he so desperately needed.
“The longer the wait went the less and less we thought we were ever going to get a liver,” said Magill.
Magill is currently trying to bring awareness to the UNOS plan and stop the boundaries from changing.
Magill’s wife, Pam Magill, worries the plan would hurt families in the metro waiting for a liver transplant.
“If they relocate the region it is still going to be the same number of donors they are just changing where people die,” said Pam Magill.
Doctors from within our region divided into 22 groups and voted against the UNOS plan on Friday. UNOS Board President Stuart Sweet said the vote is to receive input on the plan, and that no final vote has been set in place.
“We have multiple things that we need to work on as an organization to solve the problem that there is not enough livers available for transplant, and this is one component of what we are working on over time,” said Sweet.
According to numbers from UNOS, the number of transplants would decease by 2 percent nationally if the plan to change boundaries goes into effect. It would also increase the amount of travel to transport livers.
A spokesperson for KU Hospital told 41 Action News they are against the proposal. They currently have 121 people on a waiting list to receive a liver transplant.
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Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com
