World Organ Donation Day is observed every year on August 13 to raise awareness about organ donation and its potential to save multiple lives. The day also addresses common myths that stop people from considering donation. Organ donation is not limited to the heart or kidneys. Depending on a donor's medical condition and the circumstances of death, several organs and tissues can be retrieved and transplanted. This gives critically ill patients a chance at life or restore important functions.

A single donor can potentially help several people. Dr Garima Aggarwal, Consultant- Nephrologist and Renal Transplant Physician, Manipal Hospital Varthur, says people often assume organ donation means donating only major organs. "One donor, if the family agrees and the timing is right, can help transform more than eight lives, sometimes even more, once tissues are counted," she says. Dr Mettu Srinivas Reddy, Director & Lead Surgeon - HPB & Liver Transplant Surgery, STAR Liver Institute, STAR Hospitals, Hyderabad, says one dead donor can potentially help up to 10 patients and their families.

Which Organs Can Be Donated?

Several vital organs can be donated after death, provided they are medically suitable and retrieved within the required time. These include:

  • Heart: Can be transplanted into a patient with severe heart failure or other life-threatening heart conditions.
  • Kidneys: Both kidneys can be donated, potentially helping two people with kidney failure.
  • Liver: The liver can be transplanted as a whole organ from a dead donor.
  • Lungs: One or both lungs may be donated to patients with advanced lung disease.
  • Pancreas: A donated pancreas can help selected patients with severe diabetes or pancreatic failure.
  • Small intestine: In certain cases, the small intestine can be transplanted when intestinal failure makes normal nutrition impossible.

Dr Aggarwal says these organs represent only part of what donation can offer. Tissues can also provide significant benefits, even when a donor's organs are not suitable for transplantation.

Tissues Can Also Change Lives

Some tissues can be recovered under circumstances in which organ donation may no longer be possible. These include corneas, skin, bone, heart valves and blood vessels.

Corneas are particularly important because a corneal transplant can restore vision in people who have severe corneal damage or disease. "A cornea donation can give someone their eyesight back," says Dr Aggarwal.

Skin donation can also be life-saving. For people with extensive burns, donated skin can provide temporary coverage of wounds, helping reduce fluid loss, infection and pain while the patient heals.

Bone and other musculoskeletal tissues can be used in reconstructive procedures, while donated heart valves can help patients with serious valve disease. Blood vessels may also be used in certain reconstructive and vascular procedures.

According to Dr Aggarwal, tissues are different from organs because some can be recovered hours after death, giving medical teams a longer window to facilitate donation.

How Many People Can One Donor Help?

The exact number varies depending on the donor, the cause and circumstances of death, medical suitability, and which organs and tissues can be recovered.

Dr Reddy says that in a typical dead-donor case, the liver may go to one recipient, while the two kidneys can go to two others. Corneas can potentially restore sight in two people, while the heart and lungs may help other patients. Skin grafts can benefit several people depending on the amount of tissue available.

Based on this, one dead donor can potentially benefit eight to 10 people or more when both organs and tissues are considered. "This is not just one transplant," Dr Reddy explains. "It is a chain" in which a single decision can impact several families.

What About Living Organ Donation?

Organ donation does not always involve a dead donor. Living donation is also possible for certain organs and, in carefully selected circumstances, portions of organs.

A healthy person may donate one kidney and continue to live with the remaining kidney. Living liver donation is another important option. A healthy donor can donate a portion of the liver to a recipient. Dr Reddy points out that the liver has a remarkable regenerative ability. Following living-donor liver transplantation, the donated portion and the recipient's liver can grow substantially, with the liver typically regaining close to its original size within a few months.

This makes living-donor liver transplantation an important option for patients who cannot wait for a dead-donor organ.

Does Age Or Illness Rule Someone Out?

A common misconception is that older people or those with existing health conditions cannot become donors. Dr Reddy says this should not automatically discourage people from registering.

"Suitability is determined organ by organ through detailed medical evaluation," he says. This means that a person may not be suitable to donate every organ but could still have a particular organ or tissue that is healthy and viable for transplantation. Dr Reddy recalls seeing donors in their eighties whose organs or tissues could still help save lives. Therefore, potential donors should not make assumptions about their eligibility based only on age or a previous diagnosis. Medical teams make the final decision after evaluating the donor.

Why Is Family Consent Important

Registering as an organ donor is an important step, but families should also know the person's wishes. When a potential donor dies, healthcare teams assess whether donation is medically possible and follow the applicable consent and allocation procedures.

For families, the decision comes at an extremely difficult time. Dr Aggarwal said, "Every family that says yes at that difficult moment, in the middle of their own grief, is quietly giving multiple people a second chance. That is the real meaning of one donor, multiple lives saved."

Organ donation, therefore, is not simply about giving away an organ. It can create a chain of life-saving opportunities in which one donor helps multiple people. As Dr Reddy puts it, "it is a chain - and every link matters."

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