98-year-old just became America’s oldest ever organ donor

He died on May 29 and his liver was successfully transplanted to a 72-year-old woman, according to Mid-America Transplant.

Allen was in robust health until he suffered a fall while picking up storm debris at his home in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, on May 27, his daughter, Linda Mitchelle said.

He struck the back of his head and was flown to St Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

Swelling around Allen’s brain couldn’t be healed.

As the family was preparing to say goodbye, hospital staff had a question: Would they consider donating his liver?

Given Allen’s age, it was a question that caught the relatives by surprise.

But surgeons had examined him and determined the organ was acceptable for transplant.

Knowing their dad’s nature – always the first to check in on people, always at the doorstep of a needy neighbour – the siblings didn’t hesitate.

“It turned it from being such a sad loss of our dad to having this little ray of joy because he was doing what he’d done all his life,” Mitchelle said.

“He was giving one more gift.”

Previously, Cecil Lockhart of West Virginia was the oldest person to donate an organ upon death, according to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education, which coordinated recovery of his liver.

He was 95 when he died in 2021, and his liver was successfully transplanted to a woman.

More people than ever are getting new organs, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, a nonprofit organisation that has run the transplant system under a government contract for nearly four decades.

Last year was a record year for donations from the deceased – more than 16,000 – and for the number of organ transplants performed – more than 46,000 – according to UNOS.

Liver transplants topped 10,000 for the first time ever.