Tissue donation is a life-enhancing and often life-saving gift of bone, skin, heart valves, veins, and connective tissue. Tissues are recovered from deceased donors and transplanted to recipient patients. These allografts can reduce pain, prevent amputations, protect against infections, and improve the quality of or potentially save the life of recipients.

Most people have heard of organ donation, but tissue donation is not as commonly discussed. Yet it is actually much more common. Organ donation includes the life-saving gift of solid organs such as heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and small bowel. Patients must be declared brain dead and maintained on mechanical support. Waiting recipients are on a list and receive organs based on the severity of need.
Tissue donation is a life-enhancing and often life-saving gift of bone, skin, heart valves, veins, and connective tissue. These gifts are surgically removed after the heart stops beating. There is no waiting list for tissue recipients. Hospitals order tissue as needed from The Tissue Center's distribution department.

Any individual from aged 36 weeks gestation and older whose heart has stopped beating may be a potential tissue donor.

Heart valves help repair cardiac defects and are used to replace diseased or deformed valves. Donated valves may be life-saving for these recipients.

Long bones of the leg and the crest of the hip become several smaller grafts used for spinal fusions, dental surgeries, and to repair damaged or diseased bone anywhere in the body. Bone grafts prevent amputations, as well as accelerate and promote healing.

Skin from the back and the legs goes directly to burn victims who need immediate grafts to stimulate new skin growth and to provide a barrier against infection and loss of body fluids. Donated skin may save the lives of critically burned patients.

Saphenous veins can be used in cardiac bypass surgeries and in preventing amputations in individuals with chronic circulation problems by restoring blood flow to a leg.

Tendons and ligaments can be used to replace damaged tendons and ligaments in patients who have sustained injuries, restoring mobility and independence.

Fascia is the tough membrane that encases muscles. It is used as a tendon to repair injuries or as an internal support for organs such as the bladder.

The surgical recovery of potential tissue grafts must be initiated within 24 hours from the time of death.

Surgical technicians are able to recover tissues from donors in funeral homes, hospital morgues and operating rooms, and medical examiner offices. A thorough site assessment takes places prior to tissue recovery to ensure an aseptic procedure.

Yes, it is. The donated tissues are removed in an aseptic environment using standard surgical procedures. During the process, the donor's body is treated with the utmost care and respect. Surgical reconstruction is always performed to restore the body to its natural shape and to allow for open casket viewing.

No. This is a gift, and there is no charge to the donor's family. All costs associated with the donation are charged to the tissue recovery agency. Funeral expenses remain the responsibility of the family just as if there were no donation.

Yes. In the state of Texas, the law does allow organ and tissue donation without family consent if a person has signed a donor card. However, many agencies still defer to the family out of respect for their loved one and to maintain public trust in the donation system. This is why it is vitally important that you make your wishes known to your family. Your legal next-of-kin (i.e., spouse, adult children, parents, adult siblings, etc.) makes the final decision about donation on your behalf. The Tissue Center's Hand It Down program can help you inform your loved ones of your wish of tissue donation to save and enhance the lives of others.

In most cases, your legal next-of-kin must give consent and a complete medical and social history in order for donation to occur. The best way to ensure that your wishes are carried out is to tell your family members that you have decided to become a donor so that they will understand your decision and support it. The Tissue Center's Hand It Down program can help you inform your loved ones of your wish to donate tissues to save and enhance the lives of others.

The Tissue Center does not want to cause any additional stress for the family. The Tissue Center will decide not to pursue donation if there is obvious disagreement among family members about the decision to donate.

Federal law requires that all hospital deaths be reported to organ, tissue, and eye donation organizations. When a death occurs outside of a hospital, family members can contact The Tissue Center directly or notify the funeral director, hospice worker, justice of the peace, or victim services personnel about their wishes to donate. This must take place before the body has been embalmed. The Tissue Center staff will then evaluate the potential donor for medical suitability.

The Tissue Center employs many different screening and evaluation tests to identify medically suitable donors. We will not recover tissues from individuals who have any health-related risk factors that would make donated tissue unsuitable for transplantation.

Before donation, a detailed medical and social history is obtained from the potential donor's next-of-kin or close family member or friend to identify any such risk factors. Other testing procedures include blood testing, culturing, and detailed reviews of health information. Through this process many potential donors are disqualified for malignant cancer, infections, autoimmune disease, IV drug abuse, and many other exposures or behaviors that might result in a risk to the potential recipient of the donated tissue.

Tissue recovery takes place in an aseptic surgical environment. Tissues are surgically recovered and sent to a processor where they are further evaluated for surgical implantation. The tissues are processed using a variety of procedures that eliminate the possibility of disease transmission.

In contrast to organ donation, tissue grafts do not have to be matched to recipients' blood type. Rejection of tissue grafts is uncommon.

If tissues are packaged and stored properly, most can be kept from 5 to 10 years, depending on the procedures set forth by the processing agency.

Tissue may be recovered either before or after an autopsy, depending on which tissues are to be recovered, the nature of the autopsy, and the policies and procedures of the medical examiner.

Please review Religious Views on Donation.

Since medical suitability is the major determining factor for all donation, individuals cannot be evaluated as donors until the time of death. At that time, medical conditions, medications, and disease history will all be taken into account according to current donor suitability criteria. To indicate your wish to be evaluated as a potential donor, however, please utilize The Tissue Center's Hand It Down program.