Organ Operation Shut Down
For the first time ever, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has shut down an organ harvesting operation. Getting decertified was the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency (LAORA) out of Miami, Florida, one of 55 such agencies across the nation.
“An organ procurement organization must serve as the trusted custodian of every donated organ,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of the Health and Human Services, said in announcing the decertification. “Its job is to honor the gift of life by ensuring trained professionals recover every organ safely, match it fairly, and deliver it quickly to the patient who needs it most. We will not allow any participant to cut corners with human life, and we hold every institution in the transplant system to the highest standards of safety and accountability.”
LAORA, a a division of the University of Miami Health System, came after an investigation showed unsafe practices, poor training, chronic underperformance, understaffing, and paperwork errors. Here, Riss Flex touches on LAORA’s role serving not only Miami, but the larger Caribbean region.
