A transplant recipient could be that person next to you on the subway or the fan at Yankee Stadium or Shea Stadium. Perhaps it's the wide-eyed kid in a Westchester classroom; a father with his family at Jones Beach; a New York City Marathon participant from Brooklyn; or the smiling grandmother walking with her giddy grandchildren through Times Square.

But without the compassion and generosity of organ and tissue donors, there would be no life-saving transplantation.

This is where the New York Organ Donor Network plays such a pivotal role - coordinating all organ and tissue donations in New York City and its surrounding counties, and by educating the general public and health care professionals about donation and transplantation.

The New York Organ Donor Network is the nonprofit, federally designated organ procurement organization that serves the Greater New York metropolitan area. Map of our service area. Of the 58 organ procurement organizations in the United States, we are the second largest. We seek family consent and recover organs (hearts, livers, kidneys, pancreas, lungs and intestines) for transplantation. We also seek family consent for the donation of tissues (including corneas, skin, bone, tendons and heart valves) and work with recovery teams from various tissue banks.

What is it that makes our service area so unique?

New Yorkers live with a passion that can't be matched anywhere else. Even though they have a reputation for being tough, when New Yorkers help each other, there is no stopping them. With a keen lust for life, we don't know the meaning of "it can't be done." That's why the New York Organ Donor Network, turns to the compassionate and generous nature of New Yorkers, as we ask: "Won't you please save a life?"

Please explore this Web site to learn all you can about organ and tissue donation, and start discussing it with your loved ones. Remember, organ and tissue donation is a family decision.