House oversight panel scrutinizes organ transplant system

WASHINGTON — Members of a congressional oversight committee said Tuesday that they fear public trust in organ donation has been fractured after a federal report found that an organ procurement organization ignored signs of life in patients when authorizing attempted organ removals.

The hearing followed a federal investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration that found that a group responsible for overseeing the removal of organs from deceased patients and getting them to patients in need exhibited “concerning patterns of risk to neurologically injured patients.” 

“For every doctor, the most important tenet in the patient-physician relationship is above all, do no harm, but what happened in these cases fractured the physician-patient relationship and saw patients subjected to pain and suffering that never should have occurred,” House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chair Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) said in his opening statement.