Understanding Donations

Facts & Figures

NEARLY 100,000 AMERICANS ARE WAITING FOR A LIFE-SAVING TRANSPLANT

• A single donor can save or enhance the lives of up to 50 people.

• Nearly 100,000 individuals are awaiting transplantation, 11% are from New York State.

• Nearly 2,000 of those on the national transplant waiting list are under the age of 18.

• More than 27,000 African Americans are awaiting life-saving organ transplants.

• Approximately 79 organ transplants take place every day in the U.S.

• About three-quarters of all living donors are relatives of their recipient, most commonly siblings. A living donor can supply a kidney or a portion of their liver, lung, pancreas or intestine.

• The number of unrelated living donors has nearly tripled since 1998.

• Over 14% of donors are 65 years of age or older and 36% are 50 years of age or older.

• Sadly, an average of 18 patients die every day while waiting, simply because the organ they needed did not become available in time.

• On average, 132 people are added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list each day—one every 10 minutes.

• People of all ages and medical histories should consider themselves potential donors. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissue can be donated.

• Annually, 25,000 tissue donors and 40,000 cornea donors provide more than 900,000 tissue and corneal transplants.

• Permission from family or next of kin must be obtained before any donation can take place.

• When approached about organ donation following the death of a loved one, Western New Yorkers continue to show great generosity. Upstate New York Transplant Services' organ conversion rate, or percent of eligible organ donors whose family or next-of-kin consents to donation, is 91.1% - the highest among all 58 federally authorized OPOs and thirty percent ahead of the national average.