What is the process for receiving an organ for transplantation?
• If you need an organ transplant, your doctor will help you get on the national waiting list. • To get on the list, you need to visit a transplant hospital. Every transplant hospital in the United States is a member of UNOS. You can use the UNOS directory at www.unos.org/members/search.asp to find a transplant hospital. • A doctor will examine you and decide if you meet the criteria to be put on the list. You also can get on the waiting list at more than one transplant hospital. Each hospital has its own criteria for listing patients. If you meet their criteria, they will add you to the list. • The hardest part of this process is waiting. There is no way to know how long you will wait to receive a donor organ. • Your name will be added to a pool of names. When an organ donor becomes available, all the patients in the pool are compared to that donor. Factors such as blood and tissue type, size of the organ, medical urgency of the patient’s illness, time already spent on the waiting lis
If you need an organ transplant, your doctor will help you get on the national waiting list. To get on the list, you need to visit a transplant hospital. Every transplant hospital in the United States is a member of UNOS. You can use the UNOS directory at www.unos.org/members/search.asp to find a transplant hospital. A doctor will examine you and decide if you meet the criteria to be put on the list. You also can get on the waiting list at more than one transplant hospital. Each hospital has its own criteria for listing patients. If you meet their criteria, they will add you to the list. The hardest part of this process is waiting. There is no way to know how long you will wait to receive a donor organ. Your name will be added to a pool of names. When an organ donor becomes available, all the patients in the pool are compared to that donor. Factors such as blood and tissue type, size of the organ, medical urgency of the patient’s illness, time already spent on the waiting list, and dis
UNOS has outlined the following process: If you need an organ transplant, your doctor will help you get on the national waiting list. To get on the waiting list, you need to visit a transplant hospital. There, a doctor will evaluate you (based on your medical history, current condition of health and other factors) and decide if you meet the criteria to be listed. Each hospital has their own criteria for listing patients. However, UNOS has developed listing guidelines for some organ types. You also can get on the waiting list at more than one transplant hospital. UNOS policies permit “multiple listing.” However, each hospital has its own criteria for listing patients and may have different rules about patients listing at other hospitals. There will not be a set amount of time that you wait, and there is no way to know how long a patient must wait to receive a donor organ. Factors that affect waiting times are patient medical status, the availability of donors in the local area and the l
