About Organ & Tissue Donation
Many families find hope in their loved one’s ability to save others through the extraordinary gift of donation. Learn more below.
What Makes Organ Donation Possible?
Organ donation is possible thanks to the generosity of donors and their families, and the close collaboration among hospitals, organ procurement organizations (OPOs), and transplant centers. There are two medical pathways to donation, each beginning with a selfless gift and ending with lives saved.
For both pathways, there are separate and distinct roles for the hospital medical teams treating the patient and the OPO organ donation coordinator. Hospital teams determine patient care, focusing all efforts on saving each patient’s life. Hospital teams determine and declare when death has occurred. Every hospital is required to have policies and procedures for patient care, withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies and determination of death. Organ donation only occurs after a patient has been declared legally dead and with appropriate authorization for the donation.
After the hospital team has declared a patient dead, the OPO, in consultation with the patient’s family begins the respectful process of organ recovery. It works with transplant centers to transport carefully preserved organs to those patients on the national waitlist system with whom the organs have been matched and accepted for transplant. The OPO supports the donor’s family long after donation, with grief counseling, information and advocacy.
What Is Brain Death?
Brain death occurs when a person permanently loses all brain activity. This means the brain has stopped working and cannot recover. It is not a coma or a temporary condition — brain death is legally and medically recognized as death.
A patient who is brain dead is on a ventilator, which mechanically keeps the heart beating and the organs functioning for a short time, making life-saving transplants possible for others in need. All hospitals are required to have policies on the determination of brain death by physicians.
What Is Donation After Circulatory Death?
Donation after circulatory death (DCD) may be possible for a patient who has a severe illness or injury with no hope of recovery and the patient’s family, in consultation with the hospital medical team, makes the difficult decision to withdraw life-sustaining therapies. Should the family also choose to have their loved one become a donor, the OPO will discuss with the family what is involved in the donor evaluation and organ recovery process.
The hospital team continues to care for the patient during the donor evaluation process and closely monitors the patient after life-sustaining therapies are withdrawn. If the patient’s heart and breathing stop permanently and is confirmed as per the hospital policy, the hospital medical team will officially declare death. Following a required waiting period of time, the process of organ recovery and donation begins.
What Is Tissue Donation and How Does it Help Others?
Donor heroes also transform lives through tissue donation. While many people are familiar with the idea of organ donation, tissue donation is not as familiar. The gift of donated tissue can help people in a variety of ways and the stories of lives changed, and sometimes saved, by generous donors are countless.
Tissue donation includes bone to repair fractures and prevent amputations, skin to heal burn patients and for reconstructive surgery for breast cancer patients, and heart valves to repair life-threatening defects. Also, cornea donation can provide the gift of sight to two recipients.