Anyone over age 18 may choose to donate their brain after death. A legal guardian must provide consent for those younger than 18. This includes people who have a brain disorder and those with healthy brains. In fact, both are needed for this important research.
What is brain donation? Brain donation is different from other organ donation. As an organ donor, you agree to give your organs to other people to help keep them alive. As a brain donor, your brain will be used for research purposes only — it will not be given to another person.
A potential organ donor is defined by the presence of either brain death or a catastrophic and irreversible brain injury that leads to fulfilling the brain death criteria [5]. Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of all brain functions, including the brain stem [6].
One organ donor can save up to eight lives. One eye and tissue donor can save or improve the lives of up to 50 people. This means an organ, eye and tissue donor can potentially impact the lives of 58 people! Organs that can be donated for transplantation include kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, small bowel and pancreas.
The brain is the only organ in the human body that cannot be transplanted. The brain cannot be transplanted because the brain's nerve tissue does not heal after transplantation.
Tissues such as cornea, heart valves, skin, and bone can be donated in case of natural death but vital organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, and pancreas can be donated only in the case of 'brain death'.
A person cannot become an organ donor if they have or are suspected of having: Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) Ebola virus disease. Active cancer.
In 1981, Abram, a member of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, explained that it is inappropriate to continue life-sustaining treatment on a dead body.
When donating as part of a study that a person actively participated in while alive, or by donating to the NIH NeuroBioBank, there is no cost to the family for the donation procedure or the autopsy report. One significant benefit of brain donation often catches families by surprise, which is a sense of solace.
Once this process has begun, it cannot be reversed. At the time a physician declares brain death, the patient is dead. Mechanical support (a breathing machine) keeps oxygen going to the organs until they can be recovered for transplant.
Permanent brain damage begins after only 4 minutes without oxygen, and death can occur as soon as 4 to 6 minutes later. Machines called automated external defibrillators (AEDs) can be found in many public places, and are available for home use.
However, the brain will not recover function, and the person is considered dead. The doctors will support the heart with medication. They will also provide oxygen through a ventilator, or breathing machine. The person's body can be supported for days and, sometimes, even weeks.
What to Know About Brain Donation. People over the age of 18 can register as a potential brain donor. Parents or legal guardians may register a minor as a potential brain donor. The average cost to donate a brain around the U.S. is about $800, though grants for certain disorders may be available.
The brain is removed from the back of the head so as not to be disfiguring. Then it is shipped to the brain bank. The transportation to the facility, brain recovery and shipping to the brain bank is performed at no cost to the family.
While seemingly rare, It's not an unheard-of phenomenon. Some researchers believe it may be possible for donor organs to hold and even pass on the characteristics and experiences of its original owner onto the new recipient, via a process known as cellular memory.
"If your medical professionals have carefully and accurately determined that the person is dead by legally accepted standards, no one can demand that you provide medical treatment to a dead body," he says.
"Pulling the plug" would render the patient unable to breathe, and the heart would stop beating within minutes, he said. But if a patient is not brain dead and instead has suffered a catastrophic neurological brain injury, DiGeorgia said, he or she could breathe spontaneously for one or two days before dying.
Brain death is a legal definition of death. It is the complete stopping of all brain function and cannot be reversed. It means that, because of extreme and serious trauma or injury to the brain, the body's blood supply to the brain is blocked, and the brain dies.
The primary obstacle for organ donation from executed prisoners is that they do not die (brain-death) on life support, as is typical for most organ donors. The most common method of execution in the United States is a three drug protocol to cause sedation, respiratory and circulatory arrest.
Kidney and liver transplants are the most common types of living-donor organ procedures. However, living people may also donate tissues for transplantation — such as skin, bone marrow and blood-forming cells.
You'll be surprised as to how much you could lose and still live. You can still have a fairly normal life without one of your lungs, a kidney, your spleen, appendix, gall bladder, adenoids, tonsils, plus some of your lymph nodes, the fibula bones from each leg and six of your ribs.
Organ donation is only possible when the donor has died in a hospital. Organs need a supply of oxygen-rich blood to remain suitable for transplantation. Donors are put on artificial respiration to keep their heart beating, so that oxygen-rich blood continues to circulate through their body.
A kidney is the most common donation. Your remaining kidney removes waste from the body. One liver lobe.
Kidney transplantation surgery is relatively noninvasive with the organ being placed on the inguinal fossa without the need to breech the peritoneal cavity. If all goes smoothly, the kidney recipient can expect to be discharged from the hospital in excellent condition after five days.