Increased Demand Meets Decreased Supply in the Age of COVID.

• Position: DONOR ORGANS

As more people recover from COVID-19 nationwide, they are left with the damaging effects of the virus on vital organs. Early on in the pandemic, physicians found that an unexpected percentage of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had elevated levels of cardiac troponin, a marker of injury to the heart muscle. Then came a rash of patients demonstrating ground-glass opacities in the lungs.

Although medical science still is learning about and adapting to post-COVID-19 health issues, one lingering health problem affects the organ transplant area of medicine: multisystem inflammatory syndrome, which drastically can reduce the viability of an organ for transplant.

This creates a problem for both patients and donors. Donors who have contracted COVID no longer have viable organs for transplantation, decreasing the available supply. Meanwhile, patients suffering from the damaging effects of COVID are increasing the demand for organ transplants.

"The blow to the organ transplant industry has been disastrous," says Sim Shain, CEO of ParaFlight EMS and organflights.com. "Many transplant centers were forced to shut down entirely, while many patients were simultaneously removed from organ waitlists. The demand for livers, kidneys, and pancreases is increasing.

"With shifting rules about geographic boundaries and allocation, it can be tough for smaller...