Organ and Tissue Donation

Don't Take Your Organs To Heaven,
Heaven Knows We Need Them There

Over 92,000 people are waiting on the U.S. organ transplant list for the gift of life. Each day, about 74 people receive transplants.

Due to the shortage of donated organs in 2005 nearly 6,500 people died waiting for an organ transplant. That translates to 19 people dying each day.

Additional Organ Donation Statistics

• Nearly 93,000 men, women and children are currently waiting for life-saving transplants.
• Every 12 minutes another name is added to the UNOS National Transplant Waiting List.
• In 2005, there were 21,215 deceased organ donors and 6,895 living organ donors for a total of 28,110 organ transplants.
• In 2005, 44,000 grafts were made available for transplant by U.S. transplant banks.
• Approximately 1,000,000 tissue transplants are performed each year.

Current Organ Donations Statistics

• Waiting List Candidates: 92,925 as of 9/17/06 2:50 pm
• Transplants Done: From January - June 2006 14,697
• Donors: From January - June 2006 7,461

Sources:
Donate Life America. Donation Statistics. At: http://www.donatelife.net/facts_stats.html
UNOS. 2006. Data. Statistics updated by the Minute. At: http://www.unos.org/
Organdonor.gov Home Page. At: http://organdonor.gov/
Mayo Clinic Staff. 2006. Organ donation: Don't let myths stand in your way. At: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organ-donation/FL00077
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Article © 2006. Kirsti A. Dyer MD, MS, FT. Licensed to About.com