AdventHealth says number of viable organ donors dropped due to COVID-19

While the pandemic has consumed many aspects of life for the past year, life-threatening illnesses still persist.

Health officials at AdventHealth report that the number of eligible organ donors has dropped due to positive test results.

Savannah Nissel was three years old when her family learned she had a heart condition. By the time she was 19, she was told she would need a transplant.

Two years later, in 2020, the call she had been waiting for finally came.

"I was offered a heart on August 13," Nissel said. "And within five minutes of them calling to offer me that heart my dad walked in the room and said, ‘hey your covid test results are positive.’ I had no symptoms. I had no idea that that was even gonna come back positive.’"

It was a crushing blow that meant she would have to wait even longer for the heart she so desperately needed.

"Every day was more and more chest pain," Nissel said. "Every day got a little bit worse. To think that that relief was right there at that door and I just couldn’t open it was really hard."

On top of that, AdventHealth said the number of viable organ donors dropped due to the coronavirus.

"Any possible donor that becomes donor positive we simply do not offer those organs to our patients," Dr. Stacy Mandras, a transplant cardiologist with AdventHealth said.

Nissel finally tested negative one month later and underwent a successful heart transplant surgery.

"In spite of COVID, this institution did more transplants than it has done the year before," Dr. Mandras said.

AdventHealth said they are the only organ transplant program in Central Florida

Health officials said they are encouraging all of their transplant patients to get the COVID-19 vaccine so that more patients like Nissel have a fighting chance.

"What we’re going through is nothing compared to what my donor’s family has to be going through right now," Nissel said.

She said with her second heart, she doesn’t take this second chance or any second for granted.

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