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Organ Donation: How It Works

December 18, 2006

The Greatest Gift • MOD Squad Helps Families Make the Greatest Gift • Strangers to the Rescue: Living Organ Donations • "Angels From God:" Stories of Organ Donation • Organ Donation: How It Works • A Critical Need • Organ and Tissue Facts • Transplant Timeline --- • Study Eyes Payments for Living Organ Donors • Wealthy Saudi Received Liver Transplant Ahead of Other Patients • AMA Hopes to Increase Organ Donations • New Safeguards for Living Organ Donors

When someone needs an organ transplant, they register with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which houses the national computer database of patients waiting for transplants.

Kim Van Frank, Assistant Executive Director at the Mid-South Transplant Foundation, explains how organ procurement organizations (OPOs) work:

"Federal law requires hospitals to make referrals to the local OPO if a patient's on a ventilator or has a brain injury. The OPO sends a coordinator to the hospital to look at records and discuss the patient's prognosis with doctors and nurses. Tests are performed to measure brain waves and blood flow to the patient's brain and medical professionals figure out if a patient is a candidate for donation. The family has to be made aware of the situation and accept that the person's not going to make it. Only then is a MOD Squad mom called in."

Evea Wenger, Manager of Donation Services for the Iowa Donor Network, stresses that organ procurement coordinators also answer questions regarding donation or brain death, and monitor the patient's condition:

"If the family is still wanting physicians to actively treat the patient, or the physicians see that there are still avenues of care that they can pursue, we usually ... follow up as needed. We continue to call the unit to see if the patient is improving or [heading] towards brain death." In this case, a MS mom is paged and comes to the hospital.

To Be A Donor

Most states allow you to designate yourself as an organ donor on your driver's license. This is the first step, but it's also crucial that you talk with your family about your plans. Most hospitals will not remove life-saving organs without the permission of the next-of-kin, so it's vitally important that your family knows of your intention and agrees to support it.

In fact, maybe you should convene a family meeting, where everyone can discuss organ donation and all your family members can reach their individual decision and inform everyone else of it.

Next: A Critical Need

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