Every year, hundreds of donated organs get delayed or even misplaced on their way to save a patient's life in the US, according to a new investigation. 

More than 112,000 people are waiting for transplants in the US. Every day, an average of 20 of these people die waiting for an organ. 

The shortage of organs is chronic, costly and fatal for patients with no options left. 

Campaigns to convince more people to become organ donors and measures to make more organs eligible for transplantation aim to expand the donor pool.

But a new investigation by Kaiser Health News revealed that organs are all-too-often lost or delayed in transit, untracked and untraceable chinks in the system that, in too many cases, render the tissues unusable. 

Every year, an estimated 8,000 people die each year waiting for an organ transplant - most often a kidney. 

The 30,000 annual tissue donors fill only a fraction of the transplants needed each year. 

With more than 145.5 million people in the US are registered to donate organs and tissue, but many of their generous offers are skimmed off by restrictions put into place to ensure the best odds that a transplant is successful.