Organ & Tissue Donation:

Get the Facts

Why talk about

organ and tissue donation?

Donate Life Illinois

• American Liver Foundation, Illinois Chapter• Biological Resource Center of Illinois

• Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network • Heartland Lions Eye Bank

• Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers

• Illinois Eye-Bank

• Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Organ/Tissue Donor Program

• LifeSource Blood Center

• Mid-America Transplant Services

• Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation

• National Kidney Foundation of Illinois

• National Marrow Donor Program

What we’ll talk about today

• Why the need for transplantation

• How donation and transplantation works

• What to do to become a donor

The need for transplantation

– More than 4,800 in Illinois– Every 13 minutes someone

added to the transplant list (100+ people each day)

– An average of 18 people die daily while waiting

• Many thousands more in need of life-restoring cornea and other tissue transplants

• Yet a single donor can save and help 25 people or more

• More than 98,000 Americans are waiting for lifesaving organ donors

Organ donation & the need

13,285 14,156

80,483 83,223 86,77590,620

94,613 97,620

24,907 25,471 27,035 28,112 28,931 28,352

12,519 14,493 14,756 13,2230

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Waiting Transplanted Donors

How do you get on the transplant waiting list?

• Diagnosed with disease leading to end-stage organ failure

• Evaluated at the transplant center

• Accepted as a transplant candidate

• Registered with United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)

• Added to the transplant waiting list

What organs can be transplanted?

Chronic hepatitisLiver tumorsCirrhosis

HypertensionDiabetesPolycystic kidney

disease

Chronic bronchitisEmphysemaCystic fibrosis

Type 1 diabetes

Heart disease- Congenital- Coronary- Hypertensive cardiomyopathy

Short-bowel syndrome

Awaiting a liver transplant

The diseased liver and a healthy liver

Today, after the transplant

Tissues that can be donated

Cornea/eye: restores sight for patients with cornealdamage or disease

Heart valve: replaces heart valve for patients withheart defects, infection or damage

Bone: saves limbs or replaces joints for patients with bone cancer, bone fractures or degenerative diseases

Soft tissue: repairs or restructures injured tendons and ligaments

Vein: replaces femoral or saphenous veins for patients with vascular disease or diseased/blocked arteries—limb-saving measure

Skin: grafts skin for patients with severe burns or surgical wounds—lifesaving measure

The gift of sight: Corneal transplant

Blood, bone marrow donation

• 3 lives can be saved by one pint of blood

• Every 3 seconds someone needs blood

• 6,000 men, women and children are waiting for a lifesaving bone marrow transplant

Match with possible recipients

The organ donation process

Referral and evaluation

Brain Death Declared

Discussion with family

Life-saving efforts

Dispatch to hospital

Organ recovery

Brain Death

Brain deathAll brain tissue is dead (irreversible damage)

No blood flow to brain

No brain activity

How organs are allocated

Potential recipients are ranked by: • Medical urgency• Blood/tissue type• Waiting time• Body size• Location of recipient in relation to donor

Heart

Lungs

Liver

Pancreas

Kidneys

Intestine

4-6 hrs

4-6 hrs

12-18 hrs

36+ hrs

12-18 hrs

12-18 hrs

How long are organs viable?

After the donation

• Transplant takes place at transplant hospital

• Donor’s family receives follow-up information, including a general description of the recipients

• Some donor families and recipients choose to correspond and eventually meet

– Confidential to protect everyone’s privacy– Identities released only if both sides agree

Transplants are successful

• More than 25,000 lifesaving transplant surgeries every year

• Nearly 1 million life-restoring tissue transplants every year

• On average more than 25 people can benefit from a single donor

If you choose to Donate Life

• Share your decision with your family

• When you turn 18: Register in the Illinois Secretary of State’s Organ/Tissue Registry

–Driver’s Facilities–Online–By phone–Mail in donor registration card

The facts are . . .

• Registering to be a donor does not affect your medical care in an emergency.

• Donation does not disfigure the body.

• All major religions support donation.

• There is no cost to you or your family if you become a donor.

The facts are . . .

• Organ allocation is blind to celebrity, wealth or factors other than medical urgency, body size, blood/tissue type, waiting time and location to the donor

• There is no “black market” for organs in the US.

• One donor can save or help more than 25 people.

• Transplants work and save lives!

Donate Life Illinois

www.donatelifeillinois.org

888/307-3668

For more information

Keratoconus

• Cone shaped cornea

• Similar to looking through a bumpy piece of glass

• Unknown cause

Acanthamoeba Keratitis

• Contact lens users• Prevention• Antibacterial drops• Corneal Transplant