Thirty donors typically yield about 95 transplants, Irving said. In April, because of the amount of Covid cases the hospitals were focusing on, the organization was able to recover only one organ per donor.
Hospitals were so overwhelmed that they weren't able to keep their transplantation programs fully operational, she said, and many potential recipients were scared to undergo surgery for fear of contracting Covid.
Irving said there was a two-week period when there was no transplant activity at all. "For us, that's devastating," she said. "Our role is to save lives."
Though Irving said the organization doesn't yet know how many patients have died during the pandemic because of a lack of an organ, she's certain lives have been lost.
While LiveOnNY is hopeful the numbers will pick back up if Covid cases remain under control in New York, there are new challenges ahead.
In June the organization recorded 25 organ donors and nearly 70 transplants. But there have been extra precautions.
Recently, there were instances when a donor would test negative for Covid, but chest X-rays or CT scans didn't look quite right, Irving said. LiveOnNY instituted a policy requiring a second Covid test. And in cases that were negative but had clinical signs that were still suspicious, the organization declined a donation.
Irving said the organization consults with a team of infectious disease physicians and pulmonologists on every case.
"The new issue that's arisen," she said, "is, how long is it safe post-Covid to recover organs?"
The current policy has been determined to be 28 days, she said. So if someone were to test negative again after having Covid, but 14 days later the person is declared brain dead following a motor vehicle accident, the organization would not proceed with organ donation.
It's not just a lack of donors that Covid has caused. It's also an uptick in new patients on the wait list for organs.
Many who have been critically ill from the disease are left without kidney function, Irving noted. They're going on dialysis and needing a transplant.
There also have been new cases of lung transplants when patients' lungs have been damaged beyond repair by the disease.
"We're seeing that type of patient now added to our wait list, which is going to only increase the need for more organ donors," she said.
And now the need for donors has been further challenged by the closure of the most common registration site: the Department of Motor Vehicles. LiveOnNY's efforts to increase registration at local churches, community fairs and other health education events also have been sidelined.
But Irving is keenly aware that organ donation is not the only care that has been detrimentally affected by the pandemic. She pointed to cancer treatments and screenings that have been delayed.
She's hopeful that keeping Covid cases down will chart a path forward for LiveOnNY to build on recent gains.
As of last year the numbers of donors and transplants had increased by about 55% since 2015.
Irving told Crain's earlier this year that she was targeting about 400 organ donors and 1,100 organs transplanted this year.
