Organ donation is the process of giving an organ or a part of an organ for the purpose of transplantation into another person.

In order for a person to become an organ donor, blood and oxygen must flow through the organs until the time of recovery to ensure viability. This requires that a person die under circumstances that have resulted in an irreparable neurological injury, usually from massive trauma to the brain such as aneurysm, stroke or automobile accident. Only after all efforts to save the patient's life have been exhausted, tests are performed to confirm the absence of brain or brain stem activity, and brain death has been declared, is donation a possibility. The state donor registry is searched to determine if the patient has personally authorized donation. If the potential donor is not found on the registry, his or her legally authorized representative (usually a spouse, relative or close friend) is offered the opportunity to authorize the donation. Once the donation decision is established, the family is asked to provide a medical and social history. Donation professionals determine which organs can be transplanted and to which patients on the national transplant waiting list the organs are to be allocated.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), "A person who may benefit from an organ transplant is referred by his or her doctor to a transplant center, which evaluates the patient. The transplant center runs a number of tests and considers the patient's mental and physical health, as well as his or her social support system. If the center accepts this person as a transplant candidate, it will add his or her medical profile to the national patient waiting list for organ transplant. The candidate is not placed on a ranked list at that time. Rather, his or her information is kept in a constantly updated, confidential, computerized database. When a deceased organ donor is identified, a transplant coordinator from an organ procurement organization accesses the UNOS computer. Each patient in the database is matched by the computer against the donor characteristics. The computer then generates a list of candidates for each available organ in ranked order according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) organ allocation policies." Waiting time for transplantation varies widely depending on factors such as the organ needed, blood type and the degree of the patient's medical urgency. Some candidates are transplanted less than a day after listing; others may wait years for a transplant. Median wait times include three to eight months for a heart, eight to 15 months for a liver, 15 months to two years for a lung, and three to five years for a kidney (United Network for Organ Sharing, 2010).

Organ donation can occur with:

• a deceased donor, who can give kidneys, pancreas, liver, lungs, heart, intestinal organs


• a living donor, who can give a kidney, or a portion of the liver, lung, intestine, or pancreas

Learn more about how organs are matched with transplant candidates now