Hospitals that are trying to increase organ donations usually look up the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, whose organ-donation efforts cover the state except for the Milwaukee area. Last year, the system persuaded 78 percent of potential organ-donor families to donate their dying loved ones’ organs, tying for the nation’s highest rate with San Diego’s Lifesharing Community Organ Donation. The national average was 56 percent. If the U.S. rate equaled Wisconsin’s, almost no one who’s on the organ transplant-waiting list would die. Instead, 6,529 died last year.
Office of Strategic Communication