Organ donation how does it work

The transplant coordinator arranges the arrival and departure times of the surgical recovery transplant teams and is present to coordinate the entire recovery process. Transplant recipients are notified by their respective transplant centers and instructed to arrive at the hospital to prepare for transplantation.

Once the organ recovery is complete, the donor family can make final arrangements with a funeral home. Typically, there are no special needs involved for the funeral home after organ and tissue donation. Letters are also written to the physicians and nurses who helped care for the donor at the area hospital.

Also, our Family Support Services FSS department provides information and programs for donor families, including grief resources, counseling, and opportunities to meet with other donor families and recipients.

These services are provided by clinical social workers who specialize in helping individuals and families through the loss of a loved one. Most deceased organ donation cases occur after the patient has been declared brain dead. Brain death occurs when an individual has suffered complete and irreversible loss of all brain function and is clinically and legally dead. Learn more about brain death and organ donation. Think you know all there is to know about organ and tissue donation?

Test your organ donation knowledge with this quick quiz to see if you are a Donation Champion. Still have questions about how organ and tissue donation works? Living Donor Transplants. Although the majority of organ donations take place after death, some organs can be donated from living donors. With approximately , people waiting for an organ transplant, living donation allows more patients to be transplanted and gives other patients on the waiting list a better chance of receiving a transplant from a deceased donor.

What is Gift of Life Donor Program? All the major religions and belief systems in the UK are open to the principles of organ donation and transplantation and accept that organ donation is an individual choice. We understand that you may have questions about whether your faith or beliefs affect your ability to become an organ donor. We've worked with faith leaders and communities to build trust, raise awareness, explore questions around organ and tissue donation, and discuss how organ donation can proceed in line with faith or beliefs.

Get information about how different faith and belief systems view organ donation here. W hen you register as an organ donor, you have the opportunity to say whether or not you would like the NHS to speak to your loved ones about how organ donation can go ahead in line with your faith or belief system. This is an optional part of the registration process, but any response you give will be part of your NHS Organ Donor Register record.

Our specialist nurses will respect the decision recorded on the NHS Organ Donor Register and will discuss what this means with your family as part of end-of-life care conversations.

When you register your organ donation decision, you may provide information about your religion and ethnicity within the additional information section. It is not stored against your registration.

If you register a decision to donate some or all of your organs, and also state that you would like the NHS to speak to your family, and anyone else appropriate, about how organ donation can go ahead in line with your faith or beliefs, this information will be recorded against your registration.

This information will be available to our specialist nurses, to enable the conversation about your requirements to take place with your family.

The specialist nurses will not see any information about what religion or belief system you belong to, they will only see whether or not you wish for the NHS to speak to your family about how organ donation can go ahead in line with your faith or belief system. If you have already recorded a donation decision, but haven't recorded any information about whether or not you would like the NHS to speak to your family about how organ donation can go ahead in line with your faith or beliefs, you can still do so.

Our specialist nurses always speak to your family to see if there are considerations around your faith, beliefs or culture with respect to funeral plans. The surgical incisions are carefully dressed after the surgery and any end of life care wishes in relation to the washing and dressing of the body are respected.

After donation, the body is always returned to the family of the deceased in the same way as any death in a hospital where donation has not taken place. Families are given the opportunity to spend time with their loved one after the operation if they wish. The body is clothed for burial, so there are no visible signs of organ or tissue donation. The operation site is covered with a white surgical dressing like any other abdominal surgery dressing.

NHSBT uses cookies which are essential for the site to work. We also use non-essential cookies to help us improve our services, any data collected is anonymised. By continuing to use this website you agree to our use of cookies. Read more about our cookies. Hi there, we see you're using OS , why not try our app? Skip to main content. Helping you to decide About organ donation What can you donate? Who can donate? Ireland Crown dependencies. Become a living donor Donating your kidney Donating part of your liver Bone and amniotic membrane donation.

Get involved News Campaigns Share your experience. You are here: Home Helping you to decide About organ donation Get the facts. Get the facts about organ donation. Use this information to help you make an informed choice.

Select a category Our duty of care The opt out system Your decision Why talk to your loved ones? Cornea donation Faith and beliefs Funeral arrangements.

Our duty of care. Every effort will be made to save your life above all else. Healthcare professionals have a duty of care to save your life first. Death is confirmed in line with strict criteria.

Most people do not die in circumstances that make it possible for them to donate their organs. How death is confirmed in the UK Death is confirmed by doctors who are entirely independent of the transplant team and this is done in the same way for people who donate organs as for those who do not. Donation after circulatory death Organ donors who go on to donate after death has been confirmed by circulatory criteria will have been treated for some time on an intensive care unit, but their injuries will be such that death is inevitable.

Donation after brainstem death People who become donors after death has been confirmed by neurological criteria will usually have died in a way that leaves them with a brain injury from which they are not able to recover. As a donor, you will be treated with dignity and respect. Only those organs and tissue specified by the donor and agreed with the family will be removed.

Your faith and beliefs will always be respected. Find out more about the process. The surgeons may decide not to recover the organs if it takes too long for the heart to stop and the other organs begin to die.

For both types of organ donors, the surgeons then drain the donor's organs of blood, refill them with a cold preservation solution, and remove the organs. The surgeons fly the organs back to the recipients and begin the transplantation. They must act quickly; the heart and lungs can last 4 to 6 hours outside the body, the pancreas 12 to 24 hours, the liver up to 24 hours and the kidneys 48 to 72 hours, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration HRSA.

Meanwhile, the donor's body, with organs removed, is prepared for a funeral or other memorial service. Organ donation saves lives, but not enough. Each day, 20 people die waiting for a transplant in the U. Even those who have signed up may run into issues with donation if they haven't made their wishes clear to their family.

We never had this conversation,'" Mekesa said. Tara Santora is a contributing editor at Fatherly and a freelance science journalist who covers everything related to science, health and the environment, particularly in relation to marginalized communities.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, Tara graduated from Oberlin College with a bachelor's degree in biology and New York University with a master's in science journalism.

Live Science. Tara Santora.