Understand Donation

Organ Donation

One donor can save up to eight people, giving them a second chance at life. It’s not just a medical act. It’s a miracle in motion for many reasons, including the fact that organ donation can only take place if the donor passes away in a hospital setting, is on a ventilator, and dies either by brain death (no blood flow to the brain nor brain activity) or circulatory death (when the heart completely stops).  

The recipients who wait for a transplant have no other recourse to survive long term. When you register, you’re saying, “I want to help others.”  

Here’s what a deceased organ donor can offer: 

• Heart 
• Lungs 
• Liver 
• Kidneys 
• Pancreas 
• Small intestine 

A donor also offers an additional meaningful way for their loved ones to remember them by. It makes a profound impact on recipients and the donor’s family alike.  

A true legacy. 

After death is declared, organ recovery takes place in a sterile operating room just like any other surgery. A surgeon and other highly trained medical professionals respect the donor throughout the procedure. 

That might include details like reading words of tribute, offering a moment of silence, or even playing the donor’s favorite music during recovery as a way to honor the gifts that a donor offers. 

Grounded in Gratitude

Ken Feld’s journey to transplant is nothing short of extraordinary. In 2020, while preparing for routine surgery, an MRI revealed what would later be diagnosed as stage 4 liver cancer. Doctors told him his tumor excluded him from transplant eligibility and gave him just 90 days to live. Yet through groundbreaking immunotherapy, Feld’s cancer disappeared, making him among the first people in the world to receive a liver transplant after metastatic cancer.  

“The happiness and joy I felt was quickly tempered with the reality that someone had lost a loved one,” says Feld.  

Tissue Donation

A lesser known, equally important area of our work: Tissue donation also saves and heals lives. There’s a bit more flexibility in terms of what makes tissue donation possible. A tissue donor might not have passed away in a hospital setting. Sometimes people pass away at home, in assisted living communities, or other unexpected places. In these cases, they may still be able to become a tissue donor within (up to) 24 hours, depending on other factors. 

If you decide to register as an organ and tissue donor, you could help dozens of people heal from life-limiting and life-threatening ailments and diseases. 

Cardiovascular Tissues

Organ donation comes first. If someone’s heart isn’t able to be transplanted, the following still remains possible.  

• Heart valves – lifesaving, and typically they go to children born with heart defects 
• Veins and arteries – used in bypass surgeries and vascular reconstructions 
• Pericardium – The protective membrane around the heart – used in dental, cardiovascular and spinal surgeries. 

Musculoskeletal Tissues

• Bone – used in orthopedic and dental surgeries to repair fractures or replace cancerous bone—some people are bone tissue recipients without realizing  
• Tendons – used to restore movement and function in joint and ligament injuries 
• Ligaments – commonly used in sports injury surgeries (e.g., ACL repair) 
• Cartilage – used in joint reconstruction 

Skin & Nerve Tissues

Tissue recovery teams typically recover skin donations from a section of the back, though tissue from other areas are possible, too—all with aesthetics in mind for the donor in case the family plans an open casket for the celebration of life.  

Tissue donation can help: 

• Burn victims as a temporary covering 
• Wound healing (e.g., in diabetic ulcers) 
• Reconstructive surgery, such as for certain breast cancer survivors  
• Cleft palate repair  

Nerve donation can help: 

• Restore sensation or function 

Eye Tissues

Sometimes this causes an immediate reaction because our eyes are precious and a bit sensitive. In reality, the recovery is minimally invasive (think contact lenses) and can help cure corneal blindness. 

What’s possible here: 

• Corneas – the most commonly transplanted tissue worldwide, restoring sight. They’re thinner than the plastic shopping bags you see at grocery stores.  
• Sclera – the white part of the eye, used in reconstructive surgeries or to support ongoing care for patients with glaucoma. 

Placenta Donation

It’s possible to give birth and share hope with others at the same time.

Planning a C-section delivery? Learn more about placenta donation here

Dignity and Respect

The foundation of our work offers dignity as respect to all organ and tissue donors and their families. After donation, our team does a skillful restorative process. Friends and family of the deceased donor may not even know they went through recovery unless someone told them.  

What they’ll see is a hero who saved and healed lives.