Facts about Organ Donation

Joan Abrams, a clinical transplant coordinator, works with patients awaiting transplants and with families of potential organ donors. "It's a very difficult subject to approach with the family of someone who has just died tragically,” explains Abrams, “but it is imperative for those people to realize that they have an opportunity to offer someone else the gift of life."

Organ donation can also help a family during the grieving process, because donor families can find solace in the knowledge that the donation is a way to extract some good from the death of a loved one.

Many issues cloud the subject of organ donation, and an important component of Abrams' role is to clarify some of these misconceptions. "It's a matter of public awareness," Abrams says. "If people understand the facts about organ donation, they probably will feel less uneasy, and hopefully be more inclined to consider becoming donors."

To address some commonly asked questions, Abrams highlights these facts about organ donation:

• Transplants are performed at no cost to the donor or the donor's family.

• All major religious denominations in America support organ donation.

• The family's approval for donation must be given, even if the donor has signed an organ donor card.

• Allocation of organs is guaranteed to be fair, with no preference given on the basis of the potential recipient's race or wealth. When you are on the waiting list for an organ, what really counts is the severity of your illness, time spent waiting, blood type, and other important medical information, not your financial or celebrity status.

• The donor's body is not disfigured and the procedure does not delay funeral arrangements. Additionally, an open casket funeral is possible for organ, eye and tissue donors.

• Lastly, one of the main concerns that people have regarding organ donation is that the donor's life might somehow be compromised in order to provide needed organs.

"This is absolutely not true," contends Abrams. "A medical professional's first priority is to do everything within their power to keep a patient alive." The medical team treating the patient is not involved in the transplant process and an objective neurological specialist must pronounce that an individual is brain dead before the question of organ donation arises.

Thus, the emergency medical team treating a patient has nothing to do with their status as a donor. Only once a patient has been brought to a hospital, admitted, placed on a vent and had a thorough neurological consult by an objective neurologist is the subject of organ donation even brought up.

The term "brain dead" refers to the irreversible loss of all brain function. The person's other organs may still be maintained artificially by a respirator, but will never function again without external means.


More facts about donation, provided by UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing:

• Almost 100,000 men, women and children currently need lifesaving organ transplants.

• Every 12 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.

• An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

• 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.



How can I help increase organ donation?

There are many ways you can help:

• Become a donor, and talk to your family about your decision to share LIFE.

• Promote donation at work, in your community, at your place of worship, and in your civic organizations

• Make a financial contribution to support UNOS' efforts to raise awareness.
For more information about how you can help, visit http://www.donatelife.net/.


Want to be a hero? Signup to be a donor.


More information on the organ donation process:

What factors are considered in organ matching and allocation?

Many different medical and logistical characteristics are considered for an organ to be distributed to the best-matched potential recipient. While the specific criteria differ for various organs, matching criteria generally include:

• blood type and size of the organ(s) needed
• time spent awaiting a transplant
• the relative distance between donor and recipient

For certain organs other factors are vital, including:

• the medical urgency of the recipient
• the degree of immune-system match between donor and recipient
• whether the recipient is a child or an adult

For more information, see the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network article on the Donor Matching System.


How does the matching process work?

The matching process contains six steps:

1. An organ is donated.
2. The donor's information is put into the UNOS transplant information database, UNetsm.
3. UNetsm lists of patients who match that organ.
4. The hospital where the patient is to be transplanted is notified of an available organ.
5. The transplant team considers whether to accept the organ for the patient.
6. The patient who will receive the organ is notified that an organ is available.


To understand how patients are matched on the national waiting list, it's helpful to think of the list as a "pool" of patients. Each time an organ becomes available, UNetsm searches the entire "pool" for the patients who are a match for the organ. A new list is made from those who match.

The patients on this new list are ranked in order of their level of match to that donor organ. The organ is offered to the transplant hospital where the first patient is listed. Other factors which may be considered are the patient's current medical status, geographical location, and time on the list. If the organ is refused for any reason, the transplant hospital of the next patient on the list is contacted. This process continues until a match is made.


What is involved in becoming a living donor? Are there resources that describe the process?

If you are considering being a living organ donor, it's important to educate yourself about the donation process, required testing, financial considerations, risks and recovery. For more information, go here.


Are there age limits or diseases that rule out organ donation?

For any death where organ donation is a possibility and consent is given, there will be a medical assessment of what organs can be recovered. There are no absolute age limits to organ donation. A handful of medical conditions will rule out organ donation, such as HIV-positive status, actively spreading cancer (except for primary brain tumors that have not spread beyond the brain stem), or certain severe, current infections. However, for most other diseases or chronic medical conditions, organ donation remains possible.

Unfortunately, many people never indicate their wish to donate because they believe, falsely, that their age or medical condition would not allow them to donate. If you want to save and enhance lives through donation, the most important action you can take is to share your donation decision; if donation is not medically feasible, that determination will be made at the time of death.


How do I express my wishes to become an organ and tissue donor?

First, indicate your intent to be an organ and tissue donor on your driver's license. Also carry an organ donor card. Most importantly, discuss your decision to donate with your family and loved ones.


Why should minorities be particularly concerned about organ donation?

Some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations than in the general population. For example, African Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics are three times more likely to suffer from end-stage renal disease than Caucasians. Native Americans are four times more likely than Caucasians to suffer from diabetes. Some of these diseases are best treated through transplantation; others can only be treated through transplantation.

Successful transplantation often is enhanced by the matching of organs between members of the same ethnic and racial group. For example, any patient is less likely to reject a kidney if it is donated by an individual who is genetically similar. Generally, people are genetically more similar to people of their own ethnicity or race than to people of other races. Therefore, a shortage of organs donated by minorities can contribute to death and longer waiting periods for transplants for minorities.


Links to various national donor agencies:

Donate Life
United Network for Organ Sharing
Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative
American Association of Tissue Banks
Eye Bank Association of America