Organ donation is a process of taking healthy and viable organs from a donor to replace unhealthy organs and tissues in a recipient. If you would like to be an organ donor, you should inform your family of your wishes because most organ donation takes place after death, although there are types of living organ donations as well.
Who Can Donate
There are not many restrictions on who can donate organs and tissue. The primary restriction is that if you have been diagnosed with HIV, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease or a systemic infection you will not be considered for donors.
Organs that Can Be Donated
Most organ donors are deceased at the time of organ donation, however living donors can donate parts of the liver, lung, pancreas and intestine. Kidneys also can be donated by living donors. Tissue donation includes the cornea, bone, veins, cartilage, tendons, ligaments and stem cells. Within the stem cell category of donation, bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells, and corn blood stem cells. If you would like to donate any type of stem cell, you must be between the ages of 18 and 60. In addition, the patient and the donor must have very similar tissue types for the transplant to be successful.
Donation After Brain Death
When a doctor pronounces a donor to be brain dead, the brain is no longer functioning and will never function again. Brain death occurs because there is no supply of oxygen or blood flow to the brain. All organs that can be donated must be harvested, which means being removed from the donor, within six and 72 hours after death, depending on the organ.
Organ Recipient
There are many factors on who will get an organ for transplant. Just because a donor is on the top of the waiting list, does not necessarily mean they will get an organ if it becomes available. Some of the considerations include, age, blood and tissue type, medical urgency, geographical distance from donor to possible recipient, size of the donor's organ to the size of the recipient and the type of organ needed.
