Maybe that person registered as an organ donor years earlier.
Maybe a family is now honoring the decision their loved one made.
Maybe a family, in the middle of an unimaginable loss, has been asked to consider donation.
However that moment arrives, we often talk about the yes as though it is the end of the story.
It isn’t.
In many ways, it is the beginning of an extraordinary chain of events.
Because a decision to donate does not mean doctors simply remove an organ, find someone who needs it and perform a transplant.
What happens between donation becoming possible and another person receiving an organ involves evaluation, coordination, matching, medical judgment, transportation and teams of people working within very real time constraints. UNOS
First, Donation Has to Be Possible
Not everyone who wants to donate will ultimately be able to donate organs.
Medical professionals evaluate a potential donor to determine whether organ donation is medically possible and which organs may be suitable for transplantation.
Information about the donor and potential organs has to be gathered.
Blood type.
Body size.
Medical information.
The condition of the organs.
Other information needed by the donation and transplant teams. UNOS
The desire to give may be there.
Medicine still has to determine what can actually be given.
Then Comes the Search
If organs can potentially be donated, another remarkable process begins.
Information about the donor is entered into the national transplant system.
The computerized matching system compares donor information with information about transplant candidates and generates a ranked list of potential recipients for each organ. UNOS
That’s where something we’ve discussed in an earlier Educational Moment becomes important:
The organ isn’t simply given to the next person in line.
A potential recipient has to be an appropriate match under the allocation system.
And each donated organ creates its own match process. UNOS
Somewhere Else, a Phone May Ring
While all of this is happening around the donor, something very different may begin happening miles away.
A transplant center receives an organ offer.
Medical information is reviewed.
A transplant team determines whether it can accept that organ for a particular patient.
And if things continue moving forward, someone who has been waiting may receive a call.
“We may have an organ for you.”
Think about that for a moment.
Two worlds that may never have touched before are suddenly moving toward each other.
In one place, a family is living through loss.
In another, a family is suddenly preparing for the possibility of more life.
They may never meet.
They may never know one another’s names.
But an extraordinary medical system is now connecting their stories.
Then the Clock Matters
Once an organ is recovered, time becomes critically important.
Donated organs must be carefully preserved, packaged and transported to the transplant hospital. How long an organ can remain viable outside the body varies by organ, which is one reason logistics and distance matter so much. UNOS
That can mean surgical teams.
Organ procurement professionals.
Transplant coordinators.
Laboratories.
Transportation teams.
Hospitals.
And many other people doing their part in a tightly coordinated process.
The donor is taken to an operating room for surgical organ recovery, and the recovered organs are then sent to the transplant hospitals where the intended recipients are waiting. UNOS notes that the donor is treated with honor and respect throughout the process. UNOS
One Yes. So Many Hands.
That may be the part of organ donation we rarely see.
We see the recipient after transplantation.
We hear that someone received a heart.
A kidney.
A liver.
Lungs.
And it can sound almost instantaneous.
Donor → organ → recipient.
But between those points is an extraordinary amount of human effort.
Someone evaluates.
Someone coordinates.
Someone enters information.
Someone reviews it.
Someone makes an offer.
Someone accepts it.
Someone prepares an operating room.
Someone recovers the organ.
Someone transports it.
Someone prepares a recipient.
Someone performs the transplant.
And all of it began because donation became possible.
What One Word Can Set in Motion
That’s what I find remarkable about the word yes.
It may be spoken quietly.
It may have been recorded years earlier when someone registered as a donor.
It may be honored by a grieving family during one of the hardest days imaginable.
But once donation becomes possible, that decision can set an extraordinary chain of people, medicine and coordination into motion.
And somewhere at the other end of that chain is a person whose life is about to change.
A person like me.
A donor’s “yes” may be only one word.
What happens because of it is extraordinary.
——— ❤️ ———
AN ORGAN DONATION EDUCATIONAL MOMENT
One question. One fact. One story. One moment at a time.
Not pressure. Not persuasion. Just understanding.
Because education matters.
Wayne Adam Greer
Author • Heart Transplant Recipient
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