Improving the Organ Donation System with On-Site Recovery Centers
Every 8 minutes, someone is added to the transplant waiting list. Right now, in Colorado and Wyoming, nearly 1,300 people await a lifesaving organ transplant. Nationwide, more than 100,000 people are on the transplant waiting list. The need for lifesaving organ donations is urgent. Unfortunately, widespread concerns have some people asking, “why is the organ donation system being broken?” This perception is causing people to remove their names from the donor registry. Organ procurement organizations (OPOs), such as Donor Alliance, recognize these concerns and are toward improving the organ donation system. Donor Alliance applauds our transplant colleagues who join us by concentrating resources and efforts to strengthen the U.S. transplantation system. This joint effort honors organ donors and their families while ensuring those in need can receive a lifesaving and healing transplant.
Of the 56 OPOs, Donor Alliance was among the first to utilize on-site recovery centers. Opening in 2011, this center significantly improves efficiency throughout the organ donation process by freeing up operating room (OR) space and optimizing medical staff time. On-site organ recovery centers focus solely on donor care and organ preservation. By centralizing resources and eliminating competing hospital priorities, these facilities reduce delays, improve organ viability, and ensure a more compassionate environment for donors and their families. They also free up hospital resources such as operating rooms and medical staff, streamlining donation processes.
Challenges in the Current Organ Donation System
OPOs serve the United States as a unique area of healthcare. OPOs are regionally based non-profit organizations that act as a compassionate and essential connection between organ and tissue donors and patients in need of lifesaving and life-healing transplants.
In 1984, the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) established the framework for a national organ recovery and allocation system in the private sector. The result is a fair and ethical way to distribute organs based on organ matching through established criteria. This Act assigned one OPO in each designated service area. By designating one OPO per area, NOTA eliminated competition between organizations. This allowed OPOs to allocate resources and focus on maximizing education and awareness efforts throughout their designated area.
The traditional organ donation system relies on hospital-based recovery, balancing urgent patient care with the complex organ recovery process. This includes assessing potential donors, conducting necessary medical evaluations, and managing the logistics. Though effective in many ways, the traditional hospital recovery model is constrained by competing priorities. Organ recovery demands specialized resources that must be balanced with emergency care, leading to transport issues that can diminish organ viability and impact transplant outcomes. Prioritizing immediate patient needs often delays organ donation, critically impacting transplant candidates. For those awaiting a transplant, such delays can mean the difference between life and death. These complexities highlight the urgency for more efficient solutions in organ donation.
A New Approach: On-Site Recovery Centers
An on-site recovery center offers a powerful solution to the challenges faced in traditional organ donation systems. These specialized facilities, dedicated solely to organ recovery, distinguish themselves from hospital-based systems, focusing exclusively on donor care and organ preservation. This concentration of resources and expertise streamlines the recovery process, ensuring faster organ recovery and better coordination with transplant centers.
In addition to enhancing operational efficiency, on-site recovery centers offer substantial operational benefits. Dedicated recovery centers help free up critical care beds, nursing staff, and other hospital resources while minimizing delays in the organ recovery process caused by busy donor hospital elective surgery schedules and unpredictable surgical emergencies that can result in organ recovery procedures being postponed. Avoiding these challenges through on-site recovery centers also creates a more compassionate and respectful environment for donors and their families during an incredibly difficult time.
Transplant recipients benefit greatly from improved organ viability, quicker access to transplants, and a smoother process overall. On-site recovery centers help meet urgent patient needs, transforming the organ donation system and enhancing outcomes for everyone involved.
Donor Alliance’s Recovery Center: Leading the Way in Organ Donation Innovation
Donor Alliance opened its state-of-the-art on-site recovery center in June 2011. Equipped with three ORs, a donor care unit (DCU), a family room, a donor resource center, and state-of-the-art equipment, the recovery center is a pivotal part of the organ donation process.
By the Numbers:
- Donor Alliance’s Recovery Center was one of the country’s first four free-standing organ recovery facilities. Today, 11 free-standing organ recovery facilities exist in the U.S., and development occurs annually.
- Nearly all eligible organ and tissue recovery cases occur at the facility.
- Since its opening in 2011, Donor Alliance has honored the decisions of nearly 800 organ donors and more than 21,000 tissue donors.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Organ Donation with On-Site Recovery Centers
Today, the U.S. recovery and organ donation and transplantation systems are among the best in the world. Thanks to innovation and continuous improvement, more transplant patients than ever continue to receive lifesaving gifts from generous donor heroes. The widespread adoption of on-site organ recovery centers promises to redefine the organ donation landscape. These centers set the stage for a system where every donation opportunity is honored, organs are preserved with optimal care, and more lives are saved daily.
To learn more or to register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor, please visit DonorAlliance.org.
How Are Transplant Patients Selected? Understanding U.S. Organ Allocation Policy
Who decides where donated organs go and how matches are made? The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) does just that. This nonprofit manages the national transplant system, working 24/7 to connect donors with patients waiting for a second chance at life. The organization’s policies and computerized network match donated organs with transplant candidates in order to save as many lives as possible while providing recipients with the best chance for long-term survival. Here’s how the process works.
UNOS uses a collaborative process to develop policies for the allocation, procurement, and transport of deceased organs, inviting input from the public and all parts of the transplant community. This approach promotes equity among patients on the waitlist and ensures policies stay current with medical science.
The resulting allocation criteria is programmed into the UNOS computer system. Using a combination of donor and candidate medical data—including blood type, medical urgency and location of the transplant and donor hospitals—UNOS’ system generates a rank-order of candidates to be offered to each organ. This match is unique to each donor and each organ.
While many factors are used to match organs with patients, only medical and logistical factors are taken into consideration for all organs. While various medical and logistical factors guide organ matching, personal or social factors, such as fame or income, have no influence on priority.
Before an organ is allocated, all transplant candidates on the waitlist that are incompatible with the donor because of blood type, height, weight and other medical factors are automatically screened out. Proper organ size is critical to a successful transplant. For instance, children often respond better to child-sized organs. Pediatric candidates have a unique scoring system, giving them priority for organs from other children. Geographic location also matters, especially for hearts and lungs, which must be transplanted quickly, making proximity to the donor hospital essential.
There are nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. waiting to receive a lifesaving organ transplant, with nearly 1,300 in Colorado and Wyoming. Learning how patients are selected to receive transplants and checking the box to register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at the DMV is quick and easy to do. You can also register today at Donate Life Colorado or Donate Life Wyoming. One person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and save and heal up to 75 more through tissue donation. Learn more from Donor Alliance.
Organ donation stories weave us together across the country. Tony of Parker, Colo., never would have imagined sharing such a special bond with a woman named Robin who lives in Texas.
When Tony was 25-years-old he had his first heart attack. Then he suffered another one when he was 30. In 2020, Tony was added to the transplant waitlist for a heart. He was told he couldn’t leave the hospital without one. In March 2020, as Coloradans were still in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, Tony received the news he was anxiously awaiting. He was receiving the gift of life.
Donor stories always have a hero. In this story, Robin’s daughter, Sicily, was that heroic donor who saved Tony’s life. He received her heart and kidney. Robin turned the pain of losing her daughter into an opportunity to save and heal lives through organ and tissue donation.
“I’m eternally grateful to them and all other donor families,” Tony said. “Thanks to my donor (Sicily) I’m finding joy being able to do simple things that most people take for granted. I’m cooking, grocery shopping and driving my car again. One of the best things though, has been being able to get back to one of my favorite hobbies, drumming. I started drumming in 4th grade and played in marching bands, jazz bands, gospel groups, rock bands and even recorded a few albums. It feels so good to be able to pick it back up again.”
In October 2024, Tony had the honor of playing the drums with a few fellow heart transplant recipients in the Desert Drum Rumble in Phoenix. The annual event raises money for Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers. With every drumbeat, Tony honored the heart that gave him life. The beat of his drum also recognized the mother who said “yes” to donation during the worst moment of her life and raised awareness for other real life organ donor stories in our community.
“It was a great way for us on transplant row to share the message and show our gratitude for our gifts, especially the ability to get back to doing something that we love and has been a part of our lives for so long,” Tony shared.
Donor Alliance is proud to be a part of the annual Colorado Springs Festival of Lights! The parade features nearly 100 beautifully lighted and decorated entries. Local companies and organizations, large and small, create holiday fantasies to share with children of all ages! Find more information on the parade route here: Festival of Lights Parade Colorado Springs Downton on Tejon
Join us at the Aurora Holiday Tree Lighting! Donor Alliance will set up our Donate Life holiday interactive gift box for residents of Aurora to enjoy. Inside the box, we will have information on organ, eye and tissue donation, and give the option for people to share their connection to donation. The event will also have holiday-themed activities, sweet treats, performances from Aurora Heart Dancers and The Original Dickens Carolers and special appearances from Ana and Elsa, as well as the one and only Santa Claus!
Join us and residents from across Colorado and Wyoming that have either had a family member become a donor, or who have received a transplant themselves, to celebrate the gift of life at the annual 9NEWS Parade of Lights. This year marks the 49th year for the two-mile long parade, which is free to attend and features marching bands, ornate floats and a special appearance by Santa! The parade begins at 14th and Bannock Streets. More information on the route can be found here: Denver’s Parade of Lights Weekend | VISIT DENVER
Some donor recipient stories start at childhood. At only 2 months old, Lella, of Delta, Colo. suffered from a rare liver condition and was added to the organ transplant waitlist. Five months later, a family’s decision during a dark moment provided Lella with a bright future. She received a lifesaving and healing gift – a liver. Liver donor stories like this one are tragic to tell, and Lella wants her donor’s legacy to continue.
Now a teenager, Lella’s donor has given her a chance to find her passion for dance, go to her high school state swimming championships, and spend time with her friends and family. Lella also became the face that represented organ donation stories around our community. These stories inspire people to say “Yes” and check the box at the DMV to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. Across the Western Slope, Lella is featured on Donate Life Colorado posters and brochures at Colorado Division of Motor Vehicle (DMV) offices. Real life organ donor stories, like hers, connect customers to the mission of saving and healing lives.
In 2024, it came full circle for Lella at the Delta Driver License Office when she got her license. For the first time, Lella was able to say “yes” and check the box to the simple question that ultimately gave her the gift of life.
“We are so thankful for our donor family’s gift to Lella,” said Lyndall, Lella’s mother. “Our goal as a family is to help someone else, if possible. To see Lella make that choice to register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor filled our hearts with overwhelming pride and hope.”
Real life organ donor stories are around every corner of our community. Every day feels like a gift for Jeremy, of Pueblo, Colo. After being added to the transplant waitlist for a liver in February 2018, Jeremy found himself awaiting that lifesaving gift in an ICU. “It’s like life flashing before your eyes,” he explains. “You’re in the surgical trauma ICU, and you can’t leave without a liver. Everything is dependent on someone else’s yes.”
Just 10 days later, a selfless decision by a donor and their family in a difficult time gave Jeremy the gift of life. With each new day, Jeremy honors his liver donor. Organ donation stories show how one heroic decision can represent the best of humanity. This miraculous gift transformed Jeremy in many ways. Since his transplant, Jeremy’s life has experienced growth and new beginnings. Thanks to his generous donor and their family, Jeremy has been able to exercise, buy a house, and even find love.
Reflecting on his journey, he shares, “Have you ever said a word to yourself so many times that it loses all meaning? You need a better word, thankful, gratitude; there’s not a stronger word. I don’t have one.”
Jeremy hopes sharing liver donor stories will inspire Coloradans to check the box to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at the DMV.
When you say “Yes” to becoming an organ and tissue donor, you’re not just checking a box. You’re bridging hope from one life to the next. Cody, of Pueblo, Colo., is one of the many donor recipient stories in our community. In 2023, Cody felt like an “abutment” on that bridge of hope. After serious illness left him in desperate need of a liver transplant, in early 2024, Cody received the gift of life from a generous donor. Organ donation stories can help inspire the community to check the box at the DMV. That’s why Cody is now determined to share his story to help Coloradans understand the impact.
“When you make that decision to be a donor, you’re not only affecting one person’s life, you’re making a ripple effect through everyone they’re connected with, hundreds of lives,” said Cody. “It’s a ripple effect that your donation can offer to the community.” Liver donor stories, like Cody’s, show our community’s collective commitment to being “Rocky Mountain Strong.” Thanks to his generous donor and their family, Cody is enjoying his newly bought home with his fiancé (and their dog) and living each day to honor his donor’s precious gift.
“Statistically, I shouldn’t be here right now,” said Cody. “Something I think about every day is that that gift to me is a debt I can’t repay. So, I hope to be able to tell the donor’s family at some point that that gift is very much appreciated, more than I can express.”
