Transplant Community FAQs

Questions about organ donation

Q. Will my care be impacted if I register as an organ donor on my driver's license?

A. No! Being a registered organ donor will not compromise the medical care you receive at a hospital. The medical team that treats you is not the same team that recovers donor organs. Medical professionals will always try to save your life first.

Q. Is there an age requirement to donate after death?

A. No, there is no age limit for organ donation after death. In fact, people of all ages have been organ donors, from newborns to older adults. For example, the oldest recorded organ donor in US history was 98 years old. 

Q. Does my religion support organ donation?

A. Generally speaking, all major religions support organ donation and view it as the greatest possible gift. We encourage you to speak to your faith leaders about this as well.

Q. If I am an organ donor after death, will it impact my funeral arrangements?

A. Organ Procurement staff work with the family and funeral home to follow the family's wishes regarding burial arrangements. In most cases, you can have an open-casket viewing after donation.

Q. Is there a cost to my family for organ donation?

A. There is no cost associated with organ donation after death.  However, the donor's family is still responsible for any costs associated with medical care at the end of life, and funeral and burial arrangements

Q. How many lives can be impacted by one organ donor?

A. One organ donor has the ability to save 8 lives through the gift of heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines. You can also give the gift of tissue donation s which includes skin, bone, heart valves, and corneas. Tissue donation can impact 75 or more lives through things like; breast mastectomy reconstruction, sight restoration, and spinal surgeries.

Questions about organ transplant

Q. What is organ transplantation?

A. Organ transplantation is a surgical procedure that involves removing an organ from a donor and placing it into a recipient whose organ has failed. The donor can be living or deceased, and the recipient is usually critically ill. The first organ transplant happened in 1954 by Dr. Joseph Murray when he transplanted a kidney from one twin to another. The organs that can be transplanted include: 

• Kidney

• Pancreas

• Heart

• Lung

• Intestine

• Vascularized composite allografts - these can include facial transplant, uterus, or limb.

Q: What is donation after brain death (DBD)?
A: In DBD, doctors who are not involved in organ donation or transplant recovery confirm that the patient’s brain has permanently stopped functioning. Multiple clinical exams and confirmatory tests are performed to determine brain death. Although machines may keep the heart beating and the lungs working, the patient is legally and medically dead.  The organ recovery team performs the donation surgery only after the patient has been declared brain dead.   Because the heart is still circulating blood, the organs remain healthy until they are recovered for transplant. 

Q: What is donation after circulatory death (DCD)?

A: In DCD donation, a patient is critically injured or ill but not brain dead. If the patient's prognosis is deemed poor by the treating physician who is not part of the organ donation or transplant team, and the patient or their family chooses to proceed with withdrawal of life support, evaluation process for potential organ donation after circulatory death begins. The patient, while still alive, will transfer to the operating room for withdrawal of life support and comfort care measures, that may include the administration of pain medication. This comfort care is provided in the operating room by a hospital provider who is separate from the organ donation and transplant recovery team. Once the patient's heart stops beating naturally and the patient is declared dead by the hospital provider, the organ transplant recovery team enters the operating room, organ recovery proceeds. The surgery for organ recovery only begins after death is officially declared, and after an appropriate waiting time to make sure that the heart did not start beating again. If the patient does not pass away in the time necessary for successful organ donation and transplantation, then the patient returns to the intensive care unit for ongoing comfort care measures.  

Q: What is the difference between DBD and DCD?

A: The key difference is how death is determined. In DBD, death is confirmed by the permanent loss of brain function. In DCD, death is confirmed after the heart has permanently stopped beating. In both cases, the doctors declaring death are separate from the organ procurement organization and the transplant recovery team.

Q: Who decides when someone is dead before donation?

A: Hospital doctors who are not part of the organ donation or transplant team determine when a patient is medically dead. This ensures the process is ethical and unbiased.

Q: Is organ donation safe?

A: Yes. The U.S. organ donation and transplant system safely facilitates thousands of life-saving transplants every year, with strict protocols, oversight, and ethical safeguards to protect both donors and recipients

Questions about living donation

Q. What organs can be donated through living donation?

A. Most commonly a kidney and a portion of your liver can be donated through living donation. However, it is also possible to donate a lobe of your lung, a portion of your pancreas, and a section of your intestine. The world of transplants is constantly changing and growing and new things are happening all the time, like living uterus donation!

Q. What should I do if I am interested in becoming a living organ donor?

A. The first thing you should do is educate yourself and learn as much about living donation as possible. We can help! Check out our Living Donor Toolkits to get specific answers to your questions. After that, contact a transplant center local to you. Each transplant center has a rigorous evaluation process to ensure you are healthy enough to donate. 

Q. Does it cost money to be a living organ donor?

A. While most of your medical workup and the surgery are covered for living donation, there are still costs to consider. Our Financial Toolkit does a great job of listing different costs to consider. 

Q. Will my job support me if I become a living donor?

A. Right now AST is working hard to advocate and pass the Living Donor Protection Act. We are also working with companies and organizations to implement living donor HR policies through our Living Donor Circle of Excellence program. If you are interested in working with your company to create an HR policy contact Brooke Iarkowski, Transplant Community Program Manager and living kidney donor at biarkowski@myast.org to learn more!

Questions from the P2S Community

Q. What resources are available for caregivers and recipients' families to understand the transplantation process? 

A. Being a caregiver to an organ recipient or someone waiting can be a rewarding and sometimes overwhelming role. AST recently launched our Caregiver Toolkit. The toolkit offers a comprehensive overview of transplant caregiving. It covers essential topics for caregivers, such as their responsibilities, legal and financial considerations, self-care and quality of life, and organ-specific information.

Ask your own question!

We want to hear from you! We will be adding rotating questions directly from the transplant community about the things YOU want to know. 

Please note that these answers cannot be specific to your own care as we are not your medical provider. All specific questions about your care should go through your transplant team.