Ongoing organ sharing database outage causes some transplant patients to jump ahead in line
Published: 24 Oct. 2025, 07:05
![The photo shows medical staff performing surgery. [PIXABAY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/10/24/6e80d52c-36e6-4197-8726-c7666be977c6.jpg)
The photo shows medical staff performing surgery. [PIXABAY]
Last month's government data center fire seems to be quietly disrupting critical functions of society. A heart transplant at a major hospital in the Seoul metropolitan area earlier in October exposed serious flaws in Korea’s organ allocation system, after a fire crippled the government’s database used to determine which patients receive life-saving transplants first.
At the hospital’s cardiovascular surgery department, a doctor transplanted a heart from a brain-dead donor into a patient with heart failure. The recipient was on the waiting list but not in critical condition, ranking far lower in national priority.
The recipient received the organ ahead of more urgent patients because the Korea Network for Organ Sharing (Konos) system — which manages organ and tissue allocation nationwide — went offline after a fire at the National Information Resources Service in Daejeon on Sept. 26.
Ordinarily, Konos ranks recipients based on urgency, but since the fire, hospitals have handled cases by selecting recipients from within their own facilities when a brain-dead donor appears, and if that is not possible, they have reached out to nearby hospitals to find one.
“This patient would have waited much longer under the normal system, but because our hospital was close to where the donor was, they got the organ first,” a surgeon said. “This is effectively a system collapse.”
The Konos network has now been down for 20 days, throwing transplant operations into disarray. The system outage has stopped the nationwide network that determines transplant priority by combining factors such as a patient’s medical urgency, region, blood type and age. As of June, 46,416 patients are waiting for organ transplants.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare instructed hospitals on Sept. 29 to consider “geographical proximity” when allocating organs.
![An ambulance [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/10/24/668ccac0-051f-44f4-bc00-cdc2ae483b4b.jpg)
An ambulance [YONHAP]
“The policy directs hospitals to perform transplants first where the brain-dead donor is located, because time is crucial in these procedures,” a ministry official said. “If that’s not possible, nearby hospitals should conduct the surgery.”
Since the fire, 13 brain-dead donors have been reported, resulting in 49 organ transplants.
Doctors warn that prolonged outages could worsen inequities. One surgeon in Seoul said a liver from a brain-dead donor during the Chuseok holiday went to a lower-priority cirrhosis patient simply because the donor was treated at the same hospital.
“The organ should have gone to someone in greater need,” the surgeon said. “Critically ill patients are dying without getting their chance.”
A transplant specialist at a leading Seoul hospital said the allocation process now favors hospitals located closer to donors, creating what the doctor described as an unfair system in which a patient’s chance of survival often depends on proximity rather than medical urgency.
As of June, average waiting times for transplants in Korea stood at 2,888 days for kidneys, 204 for livers, 2,604 for pancreases, 198 for hearts and 202 for lungs.
![A view of Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/10/24/994f9824-12af-4487-b76a-1dd49e9ab35e.jpg)
A view of Seoul National University Hospital in central Seoul [JOONGANG ILBO]
“The priority now changes depending on distance, which makes the situation extremely unfair,” another doctor said. “Right now, transplants are being decided by luck.”
A Health Ministry official clarified that if a transplant cannot take place at the hospital where the brain-dead donor is located, doctors should prioritize patients based on medical urgency, with geographical proximity considered only afterward. Medical experts say the Konos network, currently classified as a level-three facility — meaning nonessential to public safety — should be upgraded to level one, reserved for systems tied directly to human life.
“The government must immediately reclassify the organ and tissue management system as level one and prioritize its restoration,” Rep. Han Zee-a of the People Power Party said. “We need a network that never fails again.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHAE HYE-SEON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)