kidney transplant donation organ.

A new report says organ donations from the recently deceased dropped last year, resulting in fewer kidney transplants. Wednesday’s analysis from a kidney advocacy group found the transplant decline was small but a red flag. That’s because the drop in deceased donation began after publicity over some rare but scary reports of patients prepared for organ retrieval despite showing signs of life. Last year’s decline in deceased donors didn’t translate into fewer transplants overall. There were just over 49,000 compared with 48,150 in 2024. Transplants of hearts, livers and lungs continued to see gains.