SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. —
The Memphis-based National Foundation for Transplants, a lifeline for people needing organ donations around the country for the last 40 years, has gone under and left people nationwide in the lurch.
Citing rising costs and dwindling support, the donation-based nonprofit has closed its doors. But the people who were depending on those funds to help in their recovery are suddenly left with nothing and aren’t sure where to turn.
Chrystal and Gary Price thought the worst was behind them when Gary got his heart transplant surgery in January. Instead, their nightmare was just beginning.
“When we started trying to fill out forms to get our money back to pay our bills - it was set up for rent, gas, food and lodging when we go for his checkups at Duke - we got an email saying they had shut down,” she said.
Suddenly, the Price family is on the hook for thousands of dollars in services they had been promised would be handled. They’re worried Gary will have to return to work far before he’s ready, and they’re not alone. An entire community of people in a similar situation has found each other online.
“Not a week after we found out about the foundation closing, we got a notification that my mom is in organ failure. Her lungs are rejecting it,” said Bridget Ernest, whose mother had a double lung transplant in Dec. 2020.
Ernest has no idea where the funds are going to come from to help keep her mother alive. She said what little communication from the foundation there is has been just to say that money was never actually theirs.
“It’s wild. I've never been through something like this before. I thought going through my mother’s double lung transplant was big enough, and now to go through this situation is just horrible,” she said.
The National Foundation for Transplants gave ABC24 a statement which reads in part:
“All contributions received by the National Foundation for Transplants were donated for its discretionary use as a non-profit entity in support of its mission... there will be no funds left available.”
Memphis-area hospitals here like Baptist and Le Bonheur said this closure does not impact their transplant procedures.