Done vida—donate life: a surgeon’s perspective of organ donation

Abstract

Background This report is the Presidential Address of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Surgical Congress. Organ donation is discussed from the perspective of a trauma surgeon, a prospective live organ donor and a father of a transplant recipient. Current issues to increase organ donation in the United States are addressed. Methods Recent publications of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with respect to non–heart beating donation and efforts to increase organ donation were reviewed. Results Data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients/Organ Procurement and Transplant Network were reviewed and cited in the report. Data also were obtained from the Donor Network of Arizona. Conclusions The recommendations provided by the IOM and others should strengthen efforts to increase organ donation. It is hoped that collectively they will help to decrease the disparity between the number of solid organs available and the number of patients on the transplant recipient waiting list. The efforts of the participating organ procurement organization in the breakthrough collaborative are providing evidence that the IOM suggestions can be implemented with success.