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There are several unique focuses for 2025. I covered the first 12 in Part One. The following are the rest I have discovered for this year. As with all issues of LEEP Ink, the following descriptions are a...
We've arrived at another new year; the older I get, the more frequently they come. When I was younger, years seemed to take a long time to pass. Now, they're just a blip—here and gone. For ma...
21 Themes and 'Year of' Events for 2025 PART ONE, THE FIRST 12 Every year, various organizations announce the theme for the year. These themes can focus on causes, such as aesthetics and color tre...
Donate Life Month is committed to educating the public about the importance of being a registered donor.
Organ transplantation is a medical procedure that has helped save countless lives in the United States. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which manages the nation's organ transplant system, more than 40,000 organ transplants were performed in the US in 2020. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 139,000 organ transplants were performed worldwide in 2019 (most recent number available).
The most commonly transplanted organs are kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, and pancreas. In addition, tissue transplants, such as corneas, skin, and bone, are also commonly performed.
Despite organ transplantation's success, many challenges are still facing the field. One of the biggest challenges is the shortage of donor organs. There are currently more than 100,000 people on the waiting list for a transplant, and many of them will die before a suitable organ becomes available.
Ongoing efforts to increase the number of organ donors, both living and deceased, in recent years, coupled with a push to increase the use of organs from so-called "marginal" donors, including older donors or those with medical conditions that might make their organs less desirable. In addition, there is ongoing research into ways to grow replacement organs in the lab, although this technology is still in its early stages.
Overall, organ transplantation remains a critical part of modern medicine in the United States, and ongoing research and efforts to increase donor availability are helping to improve outcomes for patients in need.