Who can be a heart tissue donor?
Most people! Heart tissue, like many transplantable tissues, can be donated up to 24 hours after death. Having a ‘bad heart’, high blood pressure or heart disease does not mean that your heart valves are not working effectively. So even with these conditions, your donated heart tissue can be used to help people in need of heart tissue replacement. There are certain criteria that heart tissue donors must fulfill. The criteria enable us to provide tissue that will give the recipient the best chance of a disease-free future. A heart tissue donor must be under 60 years of age and have no evidence of transmissible disease, infection or cancer.
