Question about organ & blood donation.

[Lukeee]

When people die and they donate their organs why don't they take all the blood too? There are always shortages of blood so if they took all of it from dead people it would help, right?

Also why don't they just take everybody's organs and blood unless they specify they don't want that to happen?

 

[unloadonme]

The answer to the second question is that (in the UK at least) there has to be active consent before anything can be taken. Consent can be in the form of a donor card, otherwise it can be sought from the next of kin.

Without consent, they won't take blood or organs. With consent, the body normally needs to be kept alive until the organs can be "harvested". Once the organs are taken and the blood ceases circulating it almost immediately becomes unsuitable. The organs are much more valuable than a few pints of blood here or there.

 

[KaraBulut]

Most of the time, donors have undergone some sort of trauma and extracting blood from an alive but brain dead patient would be both expensive and impractical.

Believe it or not, there are states in the US that have enacted implied consent laws that can allow the harvesting of organs for a donor when there is no family to request donation from and the patient has not explicitly declined donation.

 

[Fire]

Believe it or not, there are states in the US that have enacted implied consent laws that can allow the harvesting of organs for a donor when there is no family to request donation from and the patient has not explicitly declined donation.

That's horrible. How will their reverend organs follow them into the afterlife if they're inside someone else?

 

[KaraBulut]

That's horrible. How will their reverend organs follow them into the afterlife if they're inside someone else?

Fedex? ....

 

[Lukeee]

How about bone marrow donations and skin donations? Do they take those as well?

 

[KaraBulut]

There's a window for donation (they hate the word "harvest") for all organs and tissues.

Hearts and lungs must be taken immediately after the heart is stopped. They are usually transplanted within 4-6 hours to the recipient. Other organs like the liver and kidney can be preserved longer.

Bone marrow can be taken after cardiac death.

Connective tissue, skin, corneas and heart valves can be taken out much later- up to 24 hours after cardiac death in some cases. These can also be preserved for as long as 5 years before they are transplanted.