Under what circumstances can a person be an organ donor?
In most cases resulting in organ donation, the patient has suffered a traumatic brain injury and brain death. After all life-saving efforts have been exhausted and it is determined that the patient’s death is imminent, the patient must remain on ventilator support. The reason for this is that the heart and lungs must continue to function after the patient dies so that the transplantable organs continue to function. In some cases of irrecoverable injury to the brain, if the patient’s heart stops beating, some organs other than the heart may quickly be recovered for transplantation.
In almost all cases resulting in organ donation, the patient has suffered a traumatic brain injury and brain death. After all life-saving efforts have been exhausted and it is determined that the patients death is imminent, the patient must remain on ventilator support. The reason for this is that the heart and lungs must continue to function after the patient dies so that the transplantable organs continue to function. If the heart stops beating, the organs die and cannot be transplanted. For an in-depth explanation of the role brain death plays in the organ donation process, go to http://www.onelegacy.org/prod/components/myths/braindeath.
In most cases resulting in organ donation, the patient has suffered a traumatic brain injury and brain death. After all life-saving efforts have been exhausted and it is determined that the patients death is imminent, the patient must remain on ventilator support. The reason for this is that the heart and lungs must continue to function after the patient dies so that the transplantable organs continue to function. In some cases of irrecoverable injury to the brain, if the patients heart stops beating, some organs other than the heart may quickly be recovered for transplantation.
