DLH supporter Dr. Jeffrey Veale got frustrated seeing so many of his patients die while waiting for a donor kidney. So he decided to do something about it: recycle. There’s no history or practice of re-transplanting, but organs can be regifted from previous transplant recipients who died with their donated kidneys still healthy. Dr. Veale is breaking an unspoken taboo against using kidneys for a third time and helping to address the shortage of organs.

DLH Medical Expert Dr. Matthew Hartwig is using the latest treatments to save more lives, including Ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP), a promising new technique. Lungs have the lowest utilization rate link of any solid organs that are transplanted. The challenge is being able to accurately assess how well the organ functions and what kind of shape it is in when it has not yet been recovered from the donor.

DLH Medical Expert Dr. Anthony Watkins has done one of the first transplants of a kidney from an HIV-positive patient into an HIV-infected recipient. It’s a technique that was pioneered by South African transplant surgeon Elmi Muller in 2007 and is now done under research protocols at U.S. hospitals.

The increasing availability of organs is an “unfortunate benefit” of the opioid epidemic. Through sharing needles, many opioid users are contracting Hepatitis C and dying young. Organs from young donors tend to perform better and often have no other problems, so solving the Hep C issue through medication could have a huge impact and save more lives. Here are eight reports on data showing safety and efficacy of these transplants.