By Bill Lindelof, Sacramento Bee

The regional organ, eye and tissue donor agency serving Sacramento and neighboring counties led the nation in organ recovery.

Sierra Donor Services was the top agency in the country in the number of organs recovered per donor at 3.78 for the first nine months of last year, the latest statistics released. The national mean is 3.13 organs per donor.

SDS serves nearly 4 million people in Northern California and Northern Nevada. The nonprofit agency’s service area includes El Dorado, Amador, Placer, Colusa, Calaveras, Nevada, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties.

SDS also for the first time in 26 years saved 243 lives through organ transplants – a 65 percent increase in organs transplanted over the previous year.

Tissue donors were up 17 percent to 698, and eye donations were up 40 percent to 352 last year.