Identifying Organ Recipients
There are more people on the organ donor waiting list than
there are organ donors, so unless they can benefit from a
living donation (e.g. kidney transplant) and have a living
donor, people who need transplants must wait for an organ
to become available. Because each candidate's situation is
unique, waiting times can vary, depending on a number of factors
described below.
To see a breakdown by organ and gender of people on the waiting
list, go to http://transplantliving.org
(not a U.S. Government Web site), click on Before the
Transplant, click on About Organ Allocation,
and go to the bottom of that page.
When the person on the waiting list is offered an
organ …
Many different factors determine who will be offered an organ.
These include, but are not limited to:
- age
- blood and tissue type
- medical urgency
- waiting time
- the geographic distance between the donor and the recipient
- the size of the donor organ in relation to the size of
the recipient (a lung from someone six feet tall would be
too big for a child.)
- the type of organ needed
Back to The Matching
Process
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