Organ donations and transplants increase on days with higher concentrations of motorcycles

Organ donations and subsequent transplants are very important for a sector of the population that urgently requires them and a group of researchers discovered that these situations increase when there are more motorcycles.

According to a recently published analysis led by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, the number of organ donations and transplants increases markedly during large motorcycle rallies.

Research shows that in regions where the seven largest motorcycle rallies in the United States were held between 2005 and 2021, there were 21% more organ donors per day, on average, and 26% more transplant recipients per day. day, on average, during these events, compared to the days before and after the rallies.

Large-scale motorcycle rallies, adds the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, attract hundreds of thousands of attendees, and previous studies have shown that these events are accompanied by an increase in traumatic injuries and deaths from motorcycle accidents. traffic.

“The spikes in organ donations and transplants that we have found in our analysis are concerning, although not entirely surprising, because they point to a systemic failure to prevent preventable deaths, which is a tragedy,” said the study's first author, David Cron, an HMS Clinical Fellow in Surgery at Mass General. “There is a clear need to improve security protocols around these events.”

The scientists analyzed data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients for deceased organ donors aged 16 years or older involved in a traffic accident and for organ recipients of those donors from March 2005 to September 2021.

The researchers analyzed the records of 10,798 organ donors and 35,329 recipients in the regions where motorcycle rallies take place. They found that during the days that the rallies were held, there were 406 organ donors and 1,400 transplant recipients in the regions near the events. During the four weeks before and after the rallies, there were 2,332 organ donors and 7,714 transplant recipients in those locations.

Be prepared for organ donation and transplants

However, the specialists also stressed that one must be prepared to take advantage of the situation in the event of deaths that could lead to organ donations and transplants.

For this reason, the specialist points out that the transplant communities in the places where these events are held should be aware of the potential for an increase in organ donors during these periods.

“Organ donation is often referred to as the gift of life, and we must ensure that we don't waste it and that we can turn any of these tragic deaths into an opportunity to potentially save other lives,” Cron added.