Organ donation can take two different forms. In one instance, the individual receives an organ that has been donated after the donor has passed away, also called a cadaver donation. In the second instance, an individual receives either an organ or tissue from a living donor. Finding enough organs for those in need has been difficult for transplant teams across the country. Waiting lists are long and filled with stories of individuals whose lives hang in the balance while waiting for an organ or tissue. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, 46,489 people were waiting for kidneys in 1999 and more than 91,000 were waiting for a kidney transplant in 2010.
Save a Life
Organ donation benefits the life of both the donor and the receiver. According to physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Division of Transplantation, the availability of living donation for kidney and liver patients has somewhat alleviated the organ shortage problem. Living donors free up the use of cadaver organs for recipients who do not have living donors. Living donation also has a higher one-year survival rate compared with cadaver transplants, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Lessened Rejections
According to The United Network for Organ Sharing, a living donation also improves the possibility that the recipient will be a better genetic match to the donor organ or tissue. Potential donors undergo a battery of tests to ensure their health and the health of the organ being donated, as well as to ensure that there will be a close genetic match with the patient. Many living organ donors are from the same family, which increases the potential they are a better genetic match. This lessens the risk of rejection on the part of the recipient.
Coping with Grief
Families who make the decision to donate the organs of the deceased family member find that this helps them through the grieving process, according to Montgomery County Community College. By bringing something positive out of the tragic situation, families are often able to believe that their loved one did not die without helping someone else. Cadaver organs must be taken from individuals who were healthy prior to their death and who had little system damage. Patients who make good candidates have often suffered severe brain injuries from fatal car accidents or motorcycle accidents where the tissue and organs were preserved without damage and were free from infection or disease. This means that the donors died unexpectedly, leaving a grieving family trying to make sense of the tragedy.
