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The Process of Donating Your Organs
Published by Claudia Giunta.
Organ donation and transplantation allow a deceased or living donor to support the life of another. Surgeons remove a healthy organ from a donor who doesn’t need it and transfer it to someone who does. Here are some quick stats about organ donation:
- Every 8 minutes someone is added to the transplant waiting list.
- Approximately 103,000 men, women, and children are on the transplant waiting list.
- 46,000 transplants were performed in 2023.
- 17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.
What does it look like to donate your organ and what are the differences between a living organ donation and a deceased donation? In this article, we’ll explore the donation process and unravel how your organs can be used to save the lives of people with life-threatening diseases or injuries to their vital organs.
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What is Organ Donation and Transplantation?
Organ donation and transplantation is a surgical process that takes a healthy organ from someone who doesn’t need it and then takes the place of someone’s failing organ. Organ recipients are people who are critically ill or in the end stages of organ failure. An organ donation and transplantation can save their life, however, not everyone who needs an organ transplant receives one in time.
While organ donors are typically recently deceased people who volunteered to donate their organs before death or their family donated them on their behalf, healthy living people can choose to donate certain organs and tissues they can spare while not jeopardizing their health. Most people in need of an organ transplant are unsure how long their wait will be, and living donors can reduce their wait. Unlike deceased donors, a living donor can decide who to donate their organ to, helping a recipient get an organ transplant faster. Most living donors go on to live a healthy life and can see the positive impact of their donation.
What Organs and Tissues Can Be Donated & Transplanted?
The following major organs can be donated and transplanted after your death:
- Liver
- Kidney
- Pancreas
- Lungs
- Heart
- Uterus
- Intestines
- Skin
Other tissues that can be donated and transplanted after your death include corneas, heart valves, bone marrow, bone, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, blood vessels, and nerves.
The following major organs can be donated and transplanted while you’re alive:
- One kidney
- A portion of your liver
- Gestational tissue
- Uterus
- In rare cases, a segment of your lung, pancreas, or intestine
Additionally, bone marrow donation can be done with a living donor and is a way to collect blood forming cells for bone marrow transplants. Bone marrow donation is a surgical procedure in which doctors withdraw liquid marrow from the sides of the back of the pelvic bone. The liquid marrow is then transported to the patient’s location for transplant.
A patient may need bone marrow if their chemotherapy or radiation to cure cancer is so high that their bone marrow stem cells will be permanently damaged by the treatment. Bone marrow transplants may also be needed if the bone marrow is destroyed by a disease.
How to Register to Become an Organ Donor
To become an organ donor after your death, you can register with the following:
- The National Donate Life Registry
- Your state registry site
- Your local DMV or BMV
- The Health app on your phone
To become a living organ donor, contact a living donor transplant program near you. If you want to donate directly to someone you know, contact their transplant hospital. To donate gestational tissues, you can tell your healthcare provider and put it in your birth plan for when you give birth. Doctors will assess your overall health and the compatibility of the person you want to donate to before the organ donation surgery.
How Your Organs Are Donated
Step 1: Identify an Eligible Donor: Eligible organ donors are declared deceased not caused by organ damage. In these cases, hospitals can preserve their organs after their death through mechanical ventilation. Medical professionals from the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) will evaluate the person’s medical status and history to determine if they’re an eligible organ donor.
Step 2: Obtain Consent: Many organ donors decide before their death to donate organs once they’re deceased. The OPTN maintains a national database of registered organ donors and will confirm their registration after identifying them as an eligible organ donor. If they are registered in the database, OPTN will inform the deceased person’s family of their consent to donate. If they are not registered but are eligible, they will consult with their family about donating their organs. The family decides whether to or not donate their loved one’s organs on their behalf.
Step 3: Match Organs: Organ procurement organizations (OPOs) will then match the donor organs and tissues with their recipient. They will enter the donor’s blood type, body size, and available organs and tissues into their computer system. The OPO system matches the organs with patients in need. After running the match, the OPO will contact the transplant team caring for the top-ranked patient. Top-ranked patients typically best match the medical information of the donor organ, are more sick than other matching patients and have waited longer for a transplant than other matching patients.
Step 4: Coordinate the Transplant: Once donor organs have been matched to a recipient, their transplant center will receive an electronic notification offering the organ donor. The transplant team determines whether to accept the organ and they coordinate the procedure. They will arrange operating rooms for both the donor and recipient and schedule the transplant surgery team’s arrival and departure.
Step 5: Recover the Organs: The recipient’s surgeons next travel to the donor’s hospital to perform the recovery surgery. The team will preserve the organs in special containers and deliver them to the recipient’s transplant hospital to perform the transplant surgery. Typically, recipients are prepped for surgery and put under anesthesia during the donor organ retrieval to minimize the amount of time the organ is out of the body.
Step 6: Organ Transplantation: The organ recipient will undergo surgery as soon as possible, while the organ is still viable. Some organs are only viable for six hours after being removed and surgery can take several hours. Once the transplant is complete, the OPO follows up with the family and healthcare team with any necessary recovery procedures. The donor’s and recipient’s identities remain anonymous unless they choose to share them.
Recovery Time
Whether you’re a living donor or an organ recipient, it can take two to six months to fully recover from organ transplantation surgery. Your doctor may require extensive stay in the hospital depending on the type of transplant you had. While recovering, you may need additional assistance throughout your day-to-day life and may experience discomfort and physical limitations.
Donating Your Body to Science
Donating your body can be an important part of medical research. It can help medical students learn surgical procedures, learn more about disease treatment options, and how to improve patient outcomes. Registering as a whole-body donor is separate from registering as an organ donor, however, when you register you can indicate that you’re also an organ donor so your organs will be used for transplants before being assessed for whole-body donation. When you register as a whole-body donor you’ll be required to fill out paperwork for your Last Will and Testament.
After your body has been donated, any unused tissue and remains will be cremated and given back to your family. It typically takes four to six weeks after donation for cremated remains to be returned. Your family will also receive detailed information about how your body was used and how it helped advance medical science.
Bottom Line
For many people in need of an organ transplant, it’s often a race against time whether they’ll receive an organ before it’s too late. If you would like to help someone you know through a living direct donation, let them know as soon as possible and contact the transplant center where the person is listed. If you would like to help someone anonymously or someone you don’t know, contact a transplant hospital and ask them about their donation program. Your decision to be an organ donor gives hope to the over 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list. You can register to be a donor today and help these individuals get a second chance at life.