Whistleblower Exposes Inequities in U.S. Kidney Transplant System

In Dallas, a whistleblower lawsuit has raised troubling questions about fairness and equity in America’s organ transplant system. Patrek Chase, former director of Parkland Health’s kidney transplant program, said he saw “Parkland patients get passed over and the same organs go to patients at UT Southwestern,” an academic hospital serving wealthier communities. One man reportedly waited nine years for a kidney, only to become too sick for surgery, while others died waiting. As Chase put it, “No one should have to wait that long.”

Chase alleges that at least 36 times in one year, kidneys offered to Parkland patients were deemed “unusable” — only to be transplanted into UT Southwestern patients by the same doctors. For families struggling on dialysis, this practice meant continued suffering. Parkland, which serves mostly low-income patients and where 64% of bills are covered by Medicaid or charity, sits less than a half-mile away from UT Southwestern. Yet patients there reportedly came off the waiting list four times faster. To Chase, this disparity reflects “a system that’s broken” — one where financial incentives outweigh patient need.

His lawsuit paints a disturbing picture of the broader transplant industry. He describes procurement groups collecting nonviable organs simply to claim Medicare reimbursements, with nearly a third of kidneys discarded. Some staff even called procurement teams “vultures” for aggressively pursuing organs. In one alleged incident, a Parkland patient was brought into surgery for organ recovery while still alive, and doctors had to intervene to stop it. At Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois, Chase claims doctors pursued risky transplants “to maximize Medicare billings,” with three deaths in six weeks.

The case also targets the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the government contractor overseeing the national system, which Chase says has “failed to properly exercise its oversight capabilities.” A 2022 Senate report already found UNOS’s failures caused the loss of viable organs and patient deaths. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged: “The entire system must be fixed to ensure that every potential donor’s life is treated with the sanctity it deserves.”

For those who believe health care should be equitable, the allegations expose a painful truth: access to life-saving organs is influenced by wealth and privilege. As Chase said, “Patients are suffering. And donors are trusting a system that’s broken.” The real question is whether we, as a society, will finally rebuild this system so that all lives — regardless of income — are valued equally.

Link: Washington Post