Donation Facts
Moment-to-moment, the thousands of people waiting for organ transplants quite simply don't know if they are waiting to live or waiting to die. They don't know which because their chance at life depends on a stranger's act of generosity who has made the decision to donate his or her organs --- to donate life.
Thousands of other patients are waiting for life-enhancing tissue transplants. Through the gift of a cornea transplant, a mother may see the color of her child's hair for the first time. With a bone transplant, a teenager may finally be able to walk again after a serious accident. With the gift of a heart valve, a child with a congenital heart defect can run and play more confidently.
Anyone can become a potential organ donor. Age or a history of disease does not automatically mean you cannot donate. Each potential donor is evaluated at the time of their death.
Organs that can be donated at the time of your death include your heart, two lungs, two kidneys, liver, pancreas and small intestine.
A typical organ donor is someone who has died after suffering from a traumatic injury to the brain; for example, a stroke, an aneurysm, or a car accident. For death to be declared, a strict set of medical criteria must be met. Among the criteria is the complete absence of activity in either the brain or the brain stem (responsible for reflexes such as cough, gag, blinking, etc.). By law, only a doctor not connected to the transplantation process may declare brain death.
After death by neurological criteria is declared, the heart, as a muscle, can still circulate blood for a limited amount of time and keep the internal organs viable. It is during that short amount of time that organs may be recovered for transplantation.
Recovery staff are notified after death has been declared. If the patient is a potential donor, they will approach the patient's family and discuss organ and tissue donation.
For someone who receives the gift of sight for the first time in a cornea transplant to someone who receives skin for burn treatments, tissue recipients are incredibly grateful to donors for having given them the opportunity of greatly improving their lives and the lives of those around them.
A tissue donor is different from an organ donor because someone can be a potential tissue donor if they died according to brain death criteria or if their heart has stopped (cardiac death). Some issues can be recovered up to times longer the heart has stopped beating than organs can.
Tissues that can be donated at the time of death include:
Bone - Facial reconstruction, limb salvage, birth defect correction, cancer treatment, spinal and oral surgery
Cartilage - Facial and other post-traumatic injury reconstruction
Corneas - Restoring eyesight
Fascia - In neurosurgery, to correct damage from trauma or tumor
Heart valves - For valve replacement where animal or artificial valves cannot be tolerated
Pericardium - Used in neurosurgery, especially in brain operations
Skin - Temporary covering for burn patients to reduce pain, scarring, fluid loss, infection
Tendons - Correcting joint injuries
Veins - Used in heart bypass surgery
Share Your Life, Share
Your Decision
In both Maryland and DC you can designate yourself as a donor on your driver's license when you go to renew your license. Both a driver's license and a donor card are seen as legal documents just like a will or an advance directive. If you die under circumstances allowing donation, your local recovery agency is required by law to do everything possible to carry out your wishes.
You can also follow the link and fill out a donor card in the presence of two witnesses and sign your name in the space provided. Have both witnesses sign their names in the space provided.
Tell your family that you have signed a document to become a donor. If you have documented you want to be a donor, your family will still need to help facilitate the donation by providing a medical background. It will help ease their minds if they know in advance that you have made this decision and that they will not have to make it for you.
If for some reason, no documentation of your intent to donate is found, then your family will be approached and will make the decision for you. Therefore, it is always a good idea to tell your family because they will be on-site at the hospital should anything happen to you.
Myths
vs. Facts
MYTH: A physician may not do everything possible to care for me in an emergency situation in order to take my organs for transplant.
FACT: Upon arrival at an accident scene or upon receiving you in the emergency room, emergency or critical care staff immediately spring into action to try and save your life. Physicians involved in a patient's care in an emergency or critical care setting by law may have nothing to do with transplant programs. The OPO (organ procurement organization) is not notified until all lifesaving efforts have failed and death has occurred. Death can be declared only by following strict medical and legal guidelines and usually with the input of more than one physician.
MYTH: Wealthy people and celebrities are moved to the top of the list ahead of ?regular? patients.
FACT: The organ allocation and distribution system is blind to wealth or social status. The length of time it takes to receive a transplant is governed by many factors: blood type, length of time on the waiting list, severity of illness and other medical criteria. Factors such as ethnicity, gender, age, income or celebrity status are not considered when determining who receives an organ.
MYTH: My religion does not support organ donation.
FACT: No major organized religion in the world objects to organ donation (for specific views, click here). In fact, donation is often encouraged as an act that exemplifies a basic religious principle - that the giving of life and alleviation of pain and suffering is the highest level of spiritual generosity and love one can offer. If you have any specific questions, you are encouraged to seek counsel from your religious advisor.
MYTH: The donor family incurs cost for organ donation.
FACT: Families of donors are in no way responsible for costs relating to organ and tissue donation. Those costs are paid by the donor program and later billed to the transplant center which bills the transplant recipient's insurance company. Donor families pay only for medical costs up to the time of their loved one's death.
MYTH: Regular funeral services are not possible following organ donation because donation will mutilate the body.
FACT: Organ donation does not delay regular funeral or memorial services. Organs and tissues are recovered using standard surgical procedures. The appearance of the donor is not altered and after any tissues are recovered the body is fully reconstructed with prosthetics. A normal viewing is possible.
MYTH: I am too old to be a donor.
FACT: There is no age limit for donation. At the time of death, appropriate medical professionals will determine whether organs and tissues are useable for transplantation. Recovery for research, therapy, and whole body donation are possible options.
MYTH: I have a history of medical illness, so you would not want my organs or tissues.
FACT: At the time of death, appropriate medical professionals will review your medical and social history to determine whether or not you can be a donor. With recent advances in transplantation, many more people than ever before can be donors.
MYTH: I don't need to tell my family that I want to be a donor, because I have it written in my will.
FACT: By the time your will is read, it will be too late to recover your organs. Telling your family that you want to be a donor is the best way to ensure your wishes are carried out because they will always be at the hospital and can relate your wishes. You may also sign an advance directive or driver's license.
MYTH: I have heard about a business traveler who is heavily drugged, then awakens in a bathtub of ice to find he or she has had one kidney removed.
FACT: This myth has no basis in the reality of organ transplantation which is a highly complex system requiring skilled medical professionals, complicated equipment and modern facilities; not to mention that such crude conditions for organ removal would cause death.
MYTH: Organs for transplant can be bought and sold on the black market.
FACT: Unlike in some countries where an individual can sell one of his/her kidneys for transplant, the selling or buying of organs for transplant is illegal in the United States.
● National Coalition on Donation ● American Kidney Fund ● Association of Organ Procurement Organizations ● Georgetown University Hospital ●
● John Hopkins Hospital ● Medical Eye Bank of Maryland & Washington Eye Bank ● National Kidney Foundation of Maryland ●
● National Kidney Foundation - National Capitol Area ● National Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program ●
● Transplant Resource Center of Maryland ● University of Maryland Medical Center ● Washington Regional Transplant Consortium ●