The process of donating an organ or its part for transplanting it into another person is known as organ donation. It is necessary that the organ is alive at the time of transplantation. It means the oxygen and blood must flow through the organ when the organ is being removed.
The organ has to be in viable condition at the time of recovery. For this, it is necessary that the person must die due to circumstances causing irreparable neurological injury. The cause of an injury can be massive trauma to the brain area due to an automobile accident, stroke or aneurysm.
The donation becomes possible only when all the attempts to save the patient fail to work and there is no activity in brain or brain stem. Only when the brain is declared dead, the organ or body tissues are removed. A donor is a person who gives the organ whereas the one who receives it is known as a recipient.
Who Can Become a Donor?
Anyone can become a donor irrespective of caste, religion, age, past or current medical condition and community. Children can also donate an organ but they need to take permission from their parents.
People suffering from active HIV, active cancer or taking Intravenous drugs regularly are not allowed to donate organs. Patients with Hepatitis C can donate an organ to Hepatitis C patient and the same holds true in the case of Hepatitis B. However, such cases rarely get approval. Cancer patients can donate corneas depending upon the condition of the eye.
Organs That Can Be Donated
You can donate both organs and tissues; however, different health conditions influence the donation activity. Vital organs such as intestines, kidneys, liver, heart, pancreas, and lungs can be donated after the brain has been declared dead. On the other hand, tissues such as heart valves, skin, corneas, bones etc. can be donated only if the death occurs naturally.
Donation of an organ is carried out with:
- A living donor who can donate a portion of lung, liver, intestine, pancreas or a kidney
- A deceased donor who can donate heart, intestinal organs, lungs, liver, kidneys
Organ Donation for Patients with Organ Failure
A recipient, in this case, is a person whose one of the vital organs has lost its ability to function. That is why a transplant means nothing short of a second chance of life for him. Most of the time, the transplant helps the recipient get back to his normal lifestyle and lifelong. A tissue or a cornea transplant offers the ability to recover from a certain pain or disability such as vision loss or osteoporosis.
Organ Donation Helps Families of Deceased to Recover from Loss
Organ Donation is a great humanly act which helps the families of the deceased to recover from the loss. The donation helps to improve the life of the recipient. Thus, the act gives huge comfort to the family members of the donor.
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