# organ donor after death from organ failure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354 "2011-06-05T00:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/1 "2011-06-05T00:57:08Z")
Recently someone at another board I’m on died, and I was a little puzzled at this announcement there: “…had a respiratory depression that caused a heart attack, anoxic brain damage and major organ failure \In accordance with his wishes, he shared the gift of life through organ and tissue donation.” I didn’t want to look like a total dick there, but I was curious just what kind of shape the organs in question might be in to donate to anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/2 "2011-06-05T01:34:44Z")
Organ and tissue donations can include things like eyes, kidneys, bone marrow - that may not have been damaged by the organ failure, or if they were harvested quickly enough the damage would be minimal. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/3 "2011-06-05T02:52:23Z")
My wife’s grandfather died from a stroke in his early 80s; he was on life-support for about a day before the family decided to pull the plug. I remember my father-in-law having a conversation with the doctor when they were making the decision, about organ donation; the doctor said that, given his age, most of his organs wouldn’t be suitable for donation, but they could, at a minimum, accept his corneas for transplant. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/4 "2011-06-05T03:02:48Z")
Many surgical grafts are made from [bone](http://www.bacterin.com/index.asp?p=OsteoSponge&n=healthcare-professionals), [skin](http://www.lifecell.com/alloderm-regenerative-tissue-matrix/95/), and tendons. When you think of organ donation, you usually think kidneys and liver, but a lot can be done with the rest of you, too. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/5 "2011-06-06T14:57:24Z")
Corneas, mainly. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/organ-donor-after-death-from-organ-failure/584354/6 "2011-06-06T15:17:02Z")
Organ and tissue donation also also includes donation for research, not just transplantation. My brother was in pretty bad shape when he passed away, and his body was donated to a tissue bank. We got a nice note from the bank later that said what research areas his donation was being used for. It was kind of cool to be told that.