Criteria for organ donations

Detroit Free Press

Anyone is a potential donor, despite age or medical problems. Across the country, some patients have had a successful transplant with organs from donors in their 90s, according to Gift of Life, Michigan's organ and tissue donor program.

Organs from nonstandard donors fall into several categories. In 2002, the nation's Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network broadened guidelines for kidney transplants. They allowed donations to come from people older than 60 or anyone ages 50-59 who has a history of stroke, hypertension or evidence of potentially lower kidney function.

Typically, organs are donated after a person has been declared brain-dead by a physician, and the deceased patient remains on a ventilator that provides the body with oxygen-rich blood until the organs are removed. This includes both standard and expanded criteria donors.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20120219/NEWS06/202190495/Criteria-organ-donations?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs