| Q: Who can become a tissue donor? |
| A: Anyone who is willing to be a tissue donor should sign the New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry and a New York driver's license. Neither age nor medical history should stop anyone one from signing a donor card. |
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| Don't decide that your tissues wouldn't be "good enough." That's a decision that would be made upon your death by physicians and trained procurement professionals. |
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| A majority of people who die in the hospital can become tissue donors. Once the hospital notifies the New York Organ Donor Network of a death, an evaluation process begins to determine if the patient is medically suitable for tissue donation and if the tissues may be transplanted safely and effectively. |
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| Q: What kind of diseases affect donation? |
| A: Safety is our number one priority. For this reason, the New York Organ Donor Network and our affiliated tissue banks follow strict medical criteria established by federal and state regulatory agencies to prevent the transmission of communicable disease through the use of tissue from infected donors. |
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| The Donor Network and our affiliated tissue banks employ many layers of screening and evaluation to identify medically suitable donors. We eliminate those with any health related high risk factors that would make the donated tissue unsuitable for transplantation. |
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| The Donor Network screens all potential donors for these diseases or conditions: |
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HIV |
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Hepatitis |
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Certain cancers, although most cancer patients may donate eyes and corneas. |
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Intravenous (IV) drug use |
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Active infections (for example, sepsis) |
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| Potential donors with these diseases or conditions may not become tissue donors. |
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| Physicians and trained procurement professionals investigate other diseases or conditions that may affect donation on a case-by-case basis to ensure that no disease is present that might harm a tissue recipient. |
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| The age of the donor is a factor only in some cases. However, we urge you to consider donating, because the criteria of the past often have no bearing on how donors are selected in the future. |
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| Q: How are tissues recovered? |
| A: Tissues are recovered during a surgical procedure performed with sensitivity and respect by highly trained medical staff. All tissue recoveries occur in a sterile environment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has established recommendations regarding acceptable time limits within which recoveries must be completed following cardiac death. The Donor Network and our affiliated tissue banks follow these recommendations in all tissue recoveries: |
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| Eye and cornea recoveries are performed within 12 hours from the time of death. All other recoveries (skin, bone, veins, arteries and heart valves) are performed within a maximum of 24 hours from the time of death. |
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| Q: Will my decision affect my medical care? |
| A: No. No donation is possible until all efforts have been made to save the patient's life, and death has been pronounced. The doctors and nurses who treat patients are not the same doctors and nurses who do the recovery of tissues. The recovery team is only involved after cardiac death, when the heart stops beating. |
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| Q: Will my family have to pay for donation? |
| A: Donation is regarded as a gift and there are no charges to the donor family. All costs associated with the donation are charged to the New York Organ Donor Network. Funeral expenses remain the responsibility of the family just as if there were no donation. |
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| Q: Will tissue donation interfere with funeral arrangements? |
| A: Tissue donation will not interfere with funeral arrangements. The donor family will incur no additional funeral charges resulting from the donation. |
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| Open casket viewing is possible after any type of tissue donation. After recovery, the surgical team replaces bone with prosthetics to restore the body to its natural shape. Prosthetic eyes restore the natural shape of the eyes. |
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| The Donor Network's Funeral Director Liaison communicates and works with the funeral home selected by the donor family, to ensure that the family's burial requests are honored. |
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| Q: When will the tissues be transplanted? |
| A: Tissue banks that process tissue for transplantation must receive the results of blood tests that screen for infectious diseases before making determinations that tissue can be transplanted. Tissues cannot be transplanted unless all test results are negative, confirming the absence of any infectious disease. |
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| Tissues from eyes or corneas are transplanted sooner than other tissues - between two and five days after the gift is made. |
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| Trained and experienced medical professionals conduct additional evaluations of skin, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal tissue before transplantation. These include a detailed review of the donor's medical and behavioral history along with the results of cultures and any autopsy reports. These reviews occur in a timely manner to ensure that safe tissue is provided to recipients in need. |
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| Q: How are tissues used? |
| A: Many tissue transplants may be life-saving, other transplants may be life-enhancing: |
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Eye/Corneas |
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The eye is the most common tissue donated and transplanted. Donated corneas, the clear covering of the eye, may avert or correct blindness. Corneas are used for cornea replacement, sclera patches and even to repair the inner ear. |
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Musculoskeletal Tissue (Bone, Tendons and Other Soft Tissue) |
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Donated bone is used after spinal injury in surgeries where fusions (cervical and lumbar) are performed. |
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Bone and soft tissue (tendons, ligaments) are used for knee repair, total revision of the knee, and in many sports medicine applications, including anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair and soft tissue reattachments. |
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Cartilage and tendon grafts restore function for people with sports injuries or trauma who would otherwise be incapacitated or disabled. |
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Hand, foot, and ankle surgery, and hip replacement surgery commonly utilize allograft tissue. |
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Periodontists utilize bone during periodontal surgery for severe gum disease. |
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Oncologists use bone allografts in cancer surgery for osteosarcomas and other tumors where bone resections or joint transplants are necessary. Patients with cancerous bone tumors once only had the option of amputation. Now, bone allografts can replace the cancerous bone and restore mobility. |
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Cardiovascular Tissue |
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Heart valves help repair cardiac defects and are used as replacements heart valves for children born with damaged valves. Many adults develop diseased or damaged valves. Donated valves may be life-saving for these recipients. |
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Saphenous veins can save a limb from amputation for patients with peripheral vascular disease . They can be used as graft material in heart bypass surgery, helping patients with coronary artery disease avoid heart attacks. |
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Femoral veins can be used as dialysis grafts enhancing the life of those with end stage renal disease. |
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Skin |
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Skin transplants may save live the lives of critically burned patients. Just think about some of the victims from the September 11 terrorist attacks who were burned over much of their bodies yet, through skin grafts, were able to survive. |
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Donated skin helps to control the patient's electrolyte balance, helps to regulate the burn victim's body temperature, and provides protection from infections. |
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Full thickness burns (third degree burns), cannot heal unaided. Skin grafts are needed for skin regeneration. Donated skin can cover a burn site and encourage skin regeneration. |
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| Q: Will the recipient know who donated tissues? |
| A: To ensure patient confidentiality, tissue banks will not reveal a donor's identity, without specific consent from the legal next of kin. Tissue banks must contact the donor's legal next of kin for consent to disclose a donor's identity to a recipient. |
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| Recipients may wish to learn who donated the tissue they received. Tissue banks are able to disclose the gender and age of donors without consent from the next of kin. The New York Organ Donor Network can assist recipients with making these requests of the tissue banks. |
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| Q: Would my family know the recipient(s)? |
| A: To ensure patient confidentiality, recipients must consent to disclosing their identities to donor families. The tissue banks must contact the recipient to obtain consent to disclose his or her identity to the donor's legal next of kin. |
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| Corneal transplantation occurs generally from 2 to 5 days after the gift has been made. The eye banks maintain waiting lists of patients in need of cornea transplants. Donor families can learn information much sooner about recipients of eye and cornea tissue donations than with other tissue donations. |
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| Cardiovascular tissue and bone undergo a number of additional examinations and evaluations after donation to ensure that the donated tissue is safe for transplantation. These additional safety measures take time. As a result, tissue transplants occur much later than the donation. |
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| Many donor families find comfort in knowing that their loved ones touch so many lives, even if their identity is not known. |
