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 52 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 2009 – 28,463
  • Number of lives lost while waiting in 2009 – 6,669
  • More than 1 million people benefit from tissue transplants each year
Ohio
  • 3,220 people are waiting; 500 of them are in central Ohio
  • 195 people died waiting in 2009, that’s about one Ohioan every other day
  • In 2009, 284 Ohioans were organ donors at the time of their death, helping 945 individuals receive a second chance at life through transplantation
  • 1,835 Ohioans gave improved quality of life to others through tissue donation
  • In 2009, Lifeline of Ohio recovered organs from 90 donors and tissue from 361 donors
National Waiting List
  • 85,958 patients waiting for a kidney transplant
  • 16,051 patients waiting for a liver transplant
  • 1,434 patients waiting for a pancreas transplant
  • 2,196 patients waiting for a kidney-pancreas transplant
  • 251 patients waiting for an intestine transplant
  • 3,166 patients waiting for a heart transplant
  • 76 patients waiting for a heart-lung transplant
  • 1,818 patients waiting for a lung transplant

As of 9/1/10 - 108,389 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 2009
  • 16,829 kidney transplants
  • 6,320 liver transplants
  • 379 pancreas transplants
  • 854 kidney-pancreas transplants
  • 180 intestine transplants
  • 2,211 heart transplants
  • 30 heart-lung transplants
  • 1,660 lung transplants

28,463 TOTAL TRANSPLANTS PERFORMED*

Number of Donors, 2009

8,022 Deceased
6,609 Living

14,631 TOTAL DONORS*

* Based on data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as of Sept. 1, 2010– data subject to change due to future submissions or corrections.