One Plus One Equals … Life
Transplantation and donation are inseparable: organs and tissues are donated because patients need transplants, and if transplantation didn’t exist, there would be no need for donors. It's an equation that remains far from balanced, however, as the list of persons waiting for transplants grows faster than the number of donated organs.
- How many people are waiting right now?
- How many people are added to the waiting list each day, and how many die waiting for organs?
Who are the people involved? They're ordinary people whose paths intersect at one extraordinary point in time.
- Take an intimate virtual journey through the process with real people — transplant patients, organ donation staff and donor families: www.organtransplants.org/journey/
The U.S. System
Organ recovery and transplantation in the United States are administered through the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). The OPTN, created by Congress as part of the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) of 1984, is a private, noprofit unified transplant network that operates under federal contract.
- The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) collects and manages data relating to every aspect of every solid organ transplant that occurs in the United States; administers the waiting list and coordinates organ matching activities; and works with organ procurement organizations, transplant centers and professionals to develop and implement policy to ensure the U.S. system remains the safest and fairest system in the world: www.unos.org.
- The Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) is the professional organization of organ recovery agencies and serves as the OPO community's liaison with UNOS and the federal government. It encourages best practices toward recovering the maximum transplantable organs and offers a highly regarded accreditation program for OPOs: www.aopo.org.
- The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) provides detailed analysis of UNOS data and publishes an annual report that showcases recent and historical data. Readers can review long-term trends of nearly aspect of donation and transplantation, on the one hand, and compare organ outcomes by transplant center, on the other: www.ustransplant org.
- The Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative was formed in April 2003 when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined with the nation's transplantation and hospital communities to increase dramatically access to transplantable organs. The collaborative is committed to articulating and disseminating best practices to achieve organ donation rates of 75 percent or higher in the nation's largest hospitals: www.organdonationnow.org.
- The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN): www.optn.org
- The official U.S. government site for information on donation and transplantation: www.organdonor.gov/
- The Coalition on Donation, a nonprofit coalition of organizations nationwide, promotes awareness of the vital need for donation: www.donatelife.net
- The American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB): www.aatb.org
- The Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA): www.restoresight.org/
- The National Marrow Donor Program: www.marrow.org
- The American Red Cross (blood and marrow donation): www.redcross.org
The Numbers
Oregon and the Northwest
Donors
in PNTB's service area, by hospital
| 2008 | Oregon | Total NW |
|---|---|---|
| People waiting (April 18) | 540 | 2,071 |
| 2007 | Oregon | Total NW |
|---|---|---|
| Number of (deceased) donors | 87 | 235 |
| Number of deceased donor transplants | 203 | 644 |
| 2006 | Oregon | Total NW |
|---|---|---|
| Number of (deceased) donors | 103 | 242 |
| Number of deceased donor transplants | 246 | 654 |
The United States
| 2007 | 2006 | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of (deceased) donors | 8,090 | 8,024 |
| Number of deceased donor transplants | 22,048 | 22,205 |
Eye and Tissue Donation
Organ and tissue recovery staff work closely together, whether they be within a single organization or separate agencies. The goal is the same: to maximize organs and tissues available for transplantation.
Serving the PNTB Area
Tissue
- Community Tissue Services — www.communitytissue.org/branches/portland.html
Eye
- Lions Eye Bank of Oregon — http://eyebank.orlions.org/
- Idaho Lions Eye Bank — www.idaholions.org/pages/lionseye1.htm
- SightLife (founded by Northwest Lions Foundation, Seattle, Wash.) — www.sightlife.org/sightlife.cfm
Learn More About Donation and Transplantation
The stories and numbers above show clearly that
- thousands of people in the United States — hundreds of them in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest — are waiting for organ transplants, and
- the need for organs is greater than the number of organs available.
We encourage you to learn more about this often poorly understood area of medicine. Read about the process, explore attitudes and beliefs — and debunk the myths.
- Donation
- Transplantation
- Religious views
- Fact sheets (source: UNOS)
- The ABCs of donation and transplantation: a glossary (source: UNOS)