How is the transplant donation process?

The heart, liver and kidney extraction procedure requires a diligent coordinated intervention by a large number of professionals from different Institutions to ensure the viability of the organs, which is what guarantees the good results of each of the different transplants. It is a race against the clock, since the heart and lung can only be preserved for a maximum of 5 hours, the liver 12 and the kidneys 24.

When a "brain" death (irreversible cortical ischemia) occurs in a hospital with staff and means and the family consents to the donation, the circulation and oxygenation of the corpse is artificially maintained and the viability of the different organs is quickly evaluated, we proceed to check if there are urgent demands of the heart and liver to meet them. If there are, the transplant teams of these patients are located to carry out the extraction in situ. This therefore requires the urgent displacement of these teams of professionals, coordinating the order of extraction and taking care of the transport of each of the organs for transplantation in the recipient's hospital. If there is no preferential urgent situation, the HLA patient most compatible with the cadaveric organ is chosen.

Sometimes it is necessary to request judicial permission (in those cases in which the death is related to accidents, injuries, etc.).

If there is no suitable HLA recipient in Spain, other European transplant organizations are contacted until the ideal recipient is found.

It is about never losing an organ because we know that each organ (heart, liver, lung, pancreas, etc.) can mean prolonging the health of a patient until then in serious condition.

The process concludes with the transplantation of each of the organs in the different centers and with a new life expectancy for the recipients.

When all organs are transplanted, the number of years of life gained without disease, added together among all recipients, can reach 56.