The Gift of Life: Why Organ and Tissue Donation?

In 2012, 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 55 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 2012 – 28,051
  • Number of lives lost while waiting in 2012 – 5,963
  • More than 1 million people benefit from tissue transplants each year
Ohio
  • 3,455 people are on the list waiting for a transplant; 790 of them are in central Ohio
  • 172 Ohioans died waiting in 2012, that’s about one person every other day
  • In 2012, 297 Ohioans were organ donors at the time of their death, helping 958 organ transplants occur
  • 1,885 Ohioans gave improved quality of life to others through tissue donation in 2012
  • In 2012, Lifeline of Ohio recovered organs from 88 donors and tissue from 329 donors
National Waiting List
  • 95,459 patients waiting for a kidney transplant
  • 15,720 patients waiting for a liver transplant
  • 1,186 patients waiting for a pancreas transplant
  • 2,126 patients waiting for a kidney-pancreas transplant
  • 254 patients waiting for an intestine transplant
  • 3,469 patients waiting for a heart transplant
  • 52 patients waiting for a heart-lung transplant
  • 1,665 patients waiting for a lung transplant

As of 04/22/2013- 118,075 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 2012
  • 16,485 kidney transplants
  • 6,256 liver transplants
  • 242 pancreas transplants
  • 801 kidney-pancreas transplants
  • 106 intestine transplants
  • 2,378 heart transplants
  • 29 heart-lung transplants
  • 1,754 lung transplants

28,051 TOTAL TRANSPLANTS PERFORMED*

Number of Donors, 2012

8,145 Deceased
6,010 Living

14,155 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 6, 2013– data subject to change due to future submissions or corrections.