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Tag: organ donor

  • DC police, community members say final goodbye to officer struck while helping stranded driver – WTOP News

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    Law enforcement officers and community members packed a Maryland church Friday morning for the funeral of D.C. Police officer Terry Bennett, who was hit while helping a stuck driver in December.

    Bennett’s car, covered with flowers and stuffed animals, remains parked in front of the police station, with his photo on the windshield.
    (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    WTOP/Scott Gelman

    Officials saluted as the procession drove by underneath a large American flag attached to the ladders from two fire trucks.
    (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    WTOP/Scott Gelman

    Officials saluted as the procession drove by underneath a large American flag attached to the ladders from two fire trucks.
    (WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    WTOP/Scott Gelman

    Washington Officer Death
    U.S. Park Police mounted officers salute as a van carrying the body of Metropolitan Police Department officer Terry Bennett is driven past the Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Washington.
    (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

    AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

    DC Officer Terry Bennett
    Officer Terry Bennett, of the D.C. Police, has died after succumbing to injuries he sustained December 2025 while helping the driver of a stranded vehicle.
    (Courtesy DC Police Union)

    Courtesy DC Police Union

    Law enforcement officers and community members packed a Maryland church Friday morning for the funeral of D.C. police officer Terry Bennett, who was hit while helping a stuck driver in December.

    At City of Praise Family Ministries in Landover, D.C. Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said Bennett didn’t “just serve this city. He gave his life for it.”

    The service came exactly a month after police said Bennett was hit while helping a stranded motorist on Interstate 695.

    Bennett was helping a driver whose car broke down in the eastbound lanes of I-695 near South Capitol Street. A passing vehicle hit him just after 10 p.m., police said.

    Bennett remained hospitalized after the incident and died in early January.

    “He was resilient and caring,” Carroll said. “He was the kind of officer every chief hopes to have, and the kind of colleague every officer hopes to work with.”

    Bennett was born and raised in D.C. and had worked in the Metropolitan Police Department for eight years. He graduated from Ballou Senior High School in 2011, and was an assistant football coach there.

    Kenny Brown, the school’s head coach, said Friday that the “number two is officially retired.”

    “If anybody knew Terry, like I’ve been telling people, you can’t tell him he wasn’t a founding father of Ballou,” Brown said.

    First District Cmdr. Colin Hall reflected on presenting Bennett with a first district officer of the month award after Bennett had helped close a robbery case.

    “It’s not a surprise he was doing what heroes do,” Hall said. “That’s what he did. He was called to act.”

    Bennett was an organ donor, and during the service, Maya Jai Pinson said she had end-stage kidney failure and received one of Bennett’s kidneys.

    “Officer Bennett didn’t receive a second chance, but he made sure that others would, and because of that plan, I was given a second chance at life,” Pinson said.

    When the service concluded, dozens of police, National Guard members and D.C. Fire and EMS officials lined M Street near the First District station.

    They saluted as the procession drove by underneath a large American flag attached to the ladders from two fire trucks.

    Bennett’s car, covered with flowers and stuffed animals, remains parked in front of the police station, with his photo on the windshield.

    Jerrold Coates, 47, of Northwest D.C., was arrested and charged with second-degree murder while armed in Bennett’s death.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • 12/20: The Uplift

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    Visit a Uyghur restaurant in Southern California, where culture is shared and the food is made with love. Plus, a man who wanted to save his friends life by donating a kidney ends up saving his own life. 

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  • RFK Jr. moves to decertify organ transplant group

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    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced new action to reform the nation’s organ transplant system, as well as a move to decertify an organ procurement organization. Omar Villafranca has details.

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  • RFK Jr. announces move to decertify organ procurement organization amid efforts to reform organ donation

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    Washington — Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Thursday new action to reform the nation’s organ transplant system, as well as a a move to decertify an organ procurement organization.

    “Every American should feel safe becoming an organ donor and giving the gift of life, yet decades of ignored patient safety concerns have driven more and more Americans off the donor list,” Kennedy said. “Today, under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking bold action and historic action to restore trust in the organ procurement process.”

    Transplant experts said last year there had been a spike in people revoking organ donor registrations, after a report that a Kentucky man who’d been declared dead woke up just as a team was preparing to remove his organs. Since then, there have been more reports of attempts to remove organs from patients who had mistakenly been declared dead. 

    Kennedy said at a news conference that “we are acting because of years of documented patient safety data failures and repeated violations of federal requirements, and we intend this decision to serve as a clear warning.”

    The secretary said the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System, “has a long record of deficiencies directly tied to patient harm.”

    “Unlike the Biden administration, which ignored these problems and failed to act, the Trump administration is setting a new standard that patient safety comes first,” Kennedy said. 

    Kennedy said along with the decertification, HHS is reforming the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and “investing in new ways to encourage organ donation.”

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a press conference on the steps of the United States Department of Agriculture on July 14, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

    Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images


    In July, HHS announced a plan to begin reforming the organ transplant system, citing a federal investigation that “revealed disturbing practices by a major organ procurement organization.”

    Kennedy said in a statement at the time that the investigation, conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration under HHS, showed “that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life,” calling it “horrifying” and pledging to hold accountable organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants. 

    HHS said the investigation examined 351 cases where organ donation was “authorized, but ultimately not completed,” finding that nearly 30% showed “concerning features,” like neurological signs in patients that the agency said are incompatible with organ donation. And at least 28 patients “may not have been deceased at the time organ procurement was initiated.”

    More than 100,000 people are on the national transplant waiting list, and 13 people die each day waiting for a transplant, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. 

    Kennedy has been pushing major changes to the nation’s health care systems since he was sworn in earlier this year. And he has faced criticism in recent weeks over his leadership of the department amid a number of departures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Wednesday, Susan Monarez, who was ousted as CDC director by Kennedy less than a month after she was confirmed, testified before a Senate committee that she faced pressure from the secretary to change the childhood vaccine schedule, regardless of whether there was scientific evidence to support doing so.

    Kennedy testified before a different Senate committee earlier this month, where he defended the CDC shake-up, saying changes at the health agency were “absolutely necessary.” The secretary denied pressuring the former director to preapprove upcoming vaccine recommendations, and accused her of lying about why she was fired.

    Kaia Hubbard

    Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

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  • Organ donor recipients gather to honor woman who save their lives

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    It’s an Eagan, Minnesota woman’s continued legacy. After Adelyn Miller died in 2023, her organs saved five lives, and four of those she saved gathered together to live out her legacy.

    “Oh man, I just miss talking to her,” said Vicki Wichmann Miller, Adelyn’s mother. 

    Adelyn Miller’s family says she was adventurous, loving and made people laugh. She was 20-years-old when ejected from a vehicle, fracturing her skull, killing her days later due to a brain herniation. 

    Her mother says she wanted to be a paramedic one day.

    “She was very much about helping everybody else,” said Miller. 

    Which is exactly what she did.

    “I owe her my life,” said Golownia, who received lungs.   

    Dennis Golownia


    “You saved my life and I’m eternally grateful,” said Kevin Enders, who received a liver. 

    “I just want her to know she’s changed my life,” said Jack Feast. Feast got Adelyn Miller’s heart. 

    Hopefully she could see it in my eyes, how grateful,” said Suzie Dauer, who got her kidney.

    “Being able to meet her recipients has been extremely healing to me,” Miller added.

    After Adelyn Miller’s passing, her mother reached out to her donors and heard back from four of the five. 

    On Saturday, they gathered together as one big Brady Bunch. Recipients and loved ones painted rocks that’ll be placed across the world. If you find one, you’ll notice a QR code linking to Adelyn’s story and her impact as a donor.

    organ-donation-meet-up.jpg

    WCCO


    “I feel like I’ve gained a whole new family with Vicki and everyone else that’s here in Minnesota,” said Feast.

    Feast, who lives in Illinois, can enjoy life with his daughter again. He has also gained new friends — or as he says ‘family’ members like Kevin, who also traveled from the Land of Lincoln for the weekend.

    “The fact we’re both still alive because of Adelyn is indescribable,” said Enders.

    Something that Dennis from the Milwaukee metro would also agree with.

    “I can see the scars on my chest and I still think of her,” he added while his granddaughter was hugging him.

    All signs that Adelyn’s legacy is alive.

    “She really impacted a lot of people” said MIller.

    To become an organ donor, register online through the National Donate Life Registry.

    Frankie McLister

    Frankie McLister, originally from Middletown, Maryland, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

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    Frankie McLister

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  • Putin and China’s Xi heard on hot mic discussing life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality

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    China’s President Xi Jinping and his visiting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality as they chatted before a massive military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, in comments picked up by state media microphones.

    Historic images showed Xi shaking hands and speaking with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square, in scenes viewed as a challenge to President Trump and the U.S.-led global order that has prevailed for more than a century.

    “These days… 70 years old,” Xi mused in Mandarin as he walked beside Putin and Kim, according to video aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. Xi’s translator conveyed the remarks to Putin, who is then heard in Russian quoting a line from a Tang dynasty poem: “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child.” 

    Elderly residents gather at a local civil affairs service center to watch the live broadcast of China’s Victory Day military parade from Beijing, Sept. 3, 2025, in Chongqing, China.

    Cheng Xin/Getty


    Putin then turned toward Xi, speaking while gesturing with his hands, though his words are inaudible on the CCTV feed. The same Chinese translator then relays Putin’s remarks to Xi.

    “With the… development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, people could get younger as they grow older, and may even become immortal,” Putin said, according to the translator. 

    Xi then spoke again in Mandarin as the camera cut away: “Predictions are, in this century, it may be… possible to live to 150 years old.”

    Putin confirmed the exchange during a news conference later Wednesday.

    “Ah, I think it was when we were going to the parade that the chairman spoke about this,” he told reporters, referring to Xi.

    “Modern means — both health improvement and medical means, and then even all kinds of surgical ones related to organ replacement — allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today,” Putin added.

    China and Russia’s “no limits partnership”

    Xi and Putin, along with Kim and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been dubbed an “Axis of Upheaval” by some Western analysts, and Xi’s decision to bring together the leaders of some of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world this week was clearly calculated. 

    The parade was the first time Kim had ever appeared together with both Xi and Putin — providing him a first multilateral diplomatic event.

    Xi and Putin have made their ambition to shake up the global status quo clear for several years.

    “We, together with you and with our sympathizers, will move towards a multipolar, just, democratic world order,” Russia’s longtime Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in 2022, ahead of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart.

    TOPSHOT-RUSSIA-CHINA-DIPLOMACY

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands during a welcoming ceremony before their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 8, 2025.

    EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images


    China and Russia have declared a “no limits partnership,” and neither Xi nor Putin, who are both 72, has ever expressed any intention of stepping down from their respective roles at the helm of their nations.

    While Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao relinquished power after 10 years in office, he abolished term limits in 2018 and, in 2023, was handed a third term as Chinese president.

    Putin was elected to a record fifth six-year term just last year in Russia. Critics dismissed the vote as a patently undemocratic farse, as virtually all of Putin’s serious political opponents were barred from running, and many of them were jailed. 

    Putin has twice used his leverage as Russia’s autocratic leader to amend the constitution so that he can theoretically stay in power until he’s in his mid-80s. He already is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

    China, meanwhile, has historically had one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the world, with a severe shortage of organ donors and a long-standing black-market organ trade. In 2016, about four years into Xi’s tenure as leader, surgeons from the World Health Organization gathered in Beijing to try to allay skepticism about whether Chinese hospitals had, as claimed, stopped performing transplants with the organs of executed prisoners.

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  • State trooper Kristie Sue Hathaway has saved lives on and off the job. She’s donated two organs to strangers.

    State trooper Kristie Sue Hathaway has saved lives on and off the job. She’s donated two organs to strangers.

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    Minnesota State Trooper Kristie Sue Hathaway earned a commendation in 2012 for saving a life on the job, but it’s not the only lifesaving move she has made.

    In 2021, Hathaway stepped forward to donate a kidney. In May, she made a second donation, this time giving away a piece of her liver.

    Both donations were non-directed, meaning the organs went to total strangers. Hathaway told CBS News that she learned about the process of non-directed live organ donation when a friend fell ill. She wanted to donate an organ then, but was the wrong blood type. Still, the situation stirred something in her, and she decided to “look into what goes into donating a kidney.” 

    “Once I did some digging, I learned that … you don’t need to know the person. And I was like, ‘I’ll do that. I’m healthy, and if I ever came across someone that needed one, I’d give them a kidney, so why not?'” Hathaway, 40, told CBS News. “I just felt like I needed to do it.”

    walking-from-icu.jpg
    Kristie Sue Hathaway walking from the ICU after her liver donation.

    Steve Hilyar


    What is live organ donation? 

    Live organ donations account for thousands of organ transplants each year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit that manages the United States’ organ transplant system, though most donations come from deceased people. 

    The kidney is the most commonly transplanted organ from a living donor, followed by the liver, according to the network’s website. Most other organs can’t be transplanted from live donors because of their role in the human body, said Mayo Clinic transplant surgeon Dr. Timucin Tanner, who was involved in Hathaway’s donations. 

    In “rare cases, a uterus or segments of other organs” may be transplanted, according to the network.

    Potential donors are screened for mental and physical health, and for compatibility with the recipient of an organ. In kidney donations, one of a person’s two kidneys is transplanted from the living donor to the recipient. In a liver transplant, a section of the liver is transplanted from the recipient into the donor. In the donor, another part of the organ regenerates to compensate for the loss, and in the recipient, the transplanted piece grows to nearly full-size.

    More than 101,000 people in the United States are awaiting a kidney donation, the National Kidney Foundation says online, but just about 17,000 receive one each year. About 12 people die a day waiting for a transplant, according to the foundation. When it comes to the liver, about 14,000 people nationwide are waiting for a liver transplant, according to the American Liver Foundation. 

    post-kidney-donation-2.jpg
    Kristie Sue Hathaway after her kidney donation.

    Steve Hilyar


    People can spend years on waiting lists. 

    “There are a lot of people at any given time who don’t have access to livers or kidneys,” said Tanner said. “We just don’t have enough deceased donor organs in this country, so living donation is a great thing.” 

    Tanner said that beyond the initial operation and recovery period, living donors do not experience “long-term consequences” from giving away an organ. The Zweig Family Center for Living Donation at Mount Sinai Hospital recommends that a living liver donor not drink alcohol for the first six months after donation, and advises against becoming pregnant until at least a year later. Living donors receive follow-up check-ups annually for five years, according to the center. The National Kidney Foundation recommends a living kidney donor wait at least a year to become pregnant.

    Six months after her liver donation, Hathaway said she is already back to her normal routine of running about 20 miles a week, and recently returned to work at her post of more than 12 years. Tanner said he has seen patients run marathons shortly after recovering from a donation. 

    ms-150.jpg
    Kristie Sue Hathaway after recovering from her kidney donation. 

    Steve Hilyar


    “There are some misconceptions about living donation,” said Tanner. “People sometimes think they’re not able to be active or have a normal life afterwards. Those are all misconceptions. None of those are true.” 

    Tanner said that Hathaway cannot make any more live organ donations, but the state trooper told CBS News that she is still working to make a difference and help those around her. She’s registered as a bone marrow donor, and she regularly donates blood. She’s also trying to educate others about live organ donation. 

    Celebrating the “ripple effect”

    Hathaway said that both times she donated, she has signed a release allowing the recipient to contact her. She has not heard from the person who received a piece of her liver, but the recipient of her kidney, a 29-year-old veteran, sent a “very small note,” followed by a longer letter from his mother. 

    post-liver-donation.jpg
    Kristie Sue Hathaway after her liver donation.

    Steve Hilyar


    Part of what spurred Hathaway’s decision to be a live organ donor is what she calls the “ripple effect” that occurs when someone receives a necessary, often life-saving organ transplant. In the case of the man who received her kidney, he had run out of dialysis access points and would no longer be able to treat a chronic condition without a new organ. Since the donation, he has returned to work and no longer needs dialysis, Hathaway said. 

    “You actually have made a measurable difference, and not just for the person getting it. It’s their whole family,” said Hathaway. “They might have kids. They might have grandkids. You can’t really put a price on somebody getting a few extra Christmases or a few extra birthdays or getting to attend a wedding that they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to attend.” 

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  • 10-year-old swept into storm drain during storm to become organ donor

    10-year-old swept into storm drain during storm to become organ donor

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    A 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain during a Tennessee storm will become an organ donor.Video above: Damages from tornado that hit Tennessee on May 8 Asher Sullivan was swept into a storm drain on May 8 in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and swept under streets while playing with other children as adults cleared debris, his father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.Asher emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after being given CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.”Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.On May 18, Jimmy posted on Facebook that Asher had “officially passed away” and that he would “have an honor walk at the hospital in the next few days and be celebrated as he is, a hero!”Jimmy also reported that Asher is currently on life support in order for his organs to be donated. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    A 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain during a Tennessee storm will become an organ donor.

    Video above: Damages from tornado that hit Tennessee on May 8

    Asher Sullivan was swept into a storm drain on May 8 in Christiana, southeast of Nashville, when he got caught in a storm drain and swept under streets while playing with other children as adults cleared debris, his father, Rutherford County Schools Superintendent Jimmy Sullivan, posted on social media.

    Asher emerged in a drainage ditch and survived after being given CPR, “but the damage is substantial,” Sullivan posted on Facebook, asking for prayers.

    “Asher needs a miracle,” Sullivan wrote.

    On May 18, Jimmy posted on Facebook that Asher had “officially passed away” and that he would “have an honor walk at the hospital in the next few days and be celebrated as he is, a hero!”

    Jimmy also reported that Asher is currently on life support in order for his organs to be donated.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • US surgeons transplant genetically modified pig kidney into patient

    US surgeons transplant genetically modified pig kidney into patient

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    NEW YORK — Doctors in Boston announced Thursday they have transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old patient.

    Massachusetts General Hospital said it’s the first time a genetically modified pig kidney has been transplanted into a living person. Previously, pig kidneys have been temporarily transplanted into brain-dead donors. Also, two men received heart transplants from pigs, although both died within months.

    The experimental transplant was done at the Boston hospital on Saturday. The patient, Richard “Rick” Slayman of Weymouth, Massachusetts, is recovering well and is expected to be discharged soon, doctors said Thursday.

    Slayman had a kidney transplant at the hospital in 2018, but had to go back on dialysis last year when it showed signs of failure. When dialysis complications arose, his doctors suggested a pig kidney transplant, he said in a statement released by the hospital.

    “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive,” said Slayman.

    The announcement marks the latest development in xenotransplantation, the term for efforts to try to heal human patients with cells, tissues, or organs from animals. For decades, it didn’t work – the human immune system immediately destroyed foreign animal tissue. More recent attempts have involved pigs that have been modified so their organs are more humanlike – increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs.

    More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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