The Gift of Life: Why Organ and Tissue Donation?

Last year approximately 28,000 Americans received a life-saving organ transplant and more than one million Americans received a life-changing tissue transplant. When just one individual makes the decision to donate, they can change the lives of more than 50 others.

And while more than 95 percent of American adults approve of donation as a viable, life-giving practice, only 54 percent of Ohioans are registered donors. Change that statistic – register to be an eye, organ or tissue donor now.

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Why give life?

Every day 18 men, women, and children die while waiting for an organ transplant. And every 10 minutes another person is added to the national waiting list for organ donation.

Startling numbers reflect the lives lost and saved by donation:

U.S.
  • Number of lives saved in 2011 – 28,535
  • Number of lives lost while waiting in 2011 – 6,612
  • More than 1 million people benefit from tissue transplants each year
Ohio
  • 3,409 people are waiting; 800 of them are in central Ohio
  • 209 Ohioans died waiting in 2011, that’s about one person every other day
  • In 2011, 287 Ohioans were organ donors at the time of their death, helping 954 individuals receive a second chance at life through transplantation
  • 1,950 Ohioans gave improved quality of life to others through tissue donation
  • In 2011, Lifeline of Ohio recovered organs from 94 donors and tissue from 321 donors
National Waiting List
  • 90,555 patients waiting for a kidney transplant
  • 16,101 patients waiting for a liver transplant
  • 1,290 patients waiting for a pancreas transplant
  • 2,135 patients waiting for a kidney-pancreas transplant
  • 279 patients waiting for an intestine transplant
  • 3,168 patients waiting for a heart transplant
  • 57 patients waiting for a heart-lung transplant
  • 1,643 patients waiting for a lung transplant

As of 03/23/12 - 113,537  TOTAL PATIENTS WAITING*

* Some patients are waiting for more than one organ; therefore, the total number of patients is less than the sum of patients waiting for each organ.

Numbers of Transplants Performed During 2011
  • 16,812 kidney transplants
  • 6,341 liver transplants
  • 287 pancreas transplants
  • 795 kidney-pancreas transplants
  • 129 intestine transplants
  • 2,322 heart transplants
  • 27 heart-lung transplants
  • 1,822 lung transplants

28,535 TOTAL TRANSPLANTS PERFORMED*

Number of Donors, 2011

8,128 Deceased
6,018 Living

14,146 TOTAL DONORS*

* Based on data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as of March 23, 2012 – data subject to change due to future submissions or corrections.