A single deceased organ donor can provide up to eight lifesaving organs: the heart, both lungs, the liver, both kidneys, the pancreas, and the intestines. Beyond those eight organs, dozens of tissues and other body parts can also be recovered, meaning one donor has the potential to help well over 75 people. More than 108,000 people are currently on the national transplant waiting list, and the need for donors far exceeds the supply.
Organs That Can Be Transplanted
In 2023, over 40,500 organs were transplanted from deceased donors in the United States. The kidneys are by far the most commonly transplanted, with more than 21,800 kidney transplants performed that year. The liver came next at roughly 9,900, followed by about 4,600 hearts and 3,000 lungs. Pancreas and intestine transplants are less common but still performed regularly, with around 900 pancreas transplants and 95 intestine transplants in the same year.
On average, each deceased donor provides about 3.3 recovered organs and roughly 2.7 organs that are ultimately transplanted. The gap between those two numbers reflects the reality that not every recovered organ is a match or in suitable condition for a recipient. Still, a single donor can save multiple lives in a single day.
Tissues and Other Donations
Organ donation gets the most attention, but tissue donation helps far more people numerically. Tissues that can be recovered after death include:
- Corneas, which restore sight
- Skin, used as grafts for severe burn patients
- Heart valves, used to repair heart defects
- Bone and cartilage, used in orthopedic and dental procedures
- Tendons and ligaments, used to reconstruct joints
- Veins and blood vessels, used in cardiac bypass and vascular surgery
- Middle ear structures, used to restore hearing
- Nerves, used to repair nerve damage
Unlike organ donation, which must happen within hours, many tissues can be recovered up to 24 hours after death and stored in tissue banks for future use. This makes tissue donation possible for a much larger number of people than organ donation.
Specialized Transplants: Hands, Faces, and More
A newer category called vascularized composite allografts involves transplanting complex body structures rather than a single organ or tissue type. These transplants combine skin, bone, muscle, blood vessels, and nerves as a single unit. The first successful one in the U.S. was a voice box transplant in 1998, followed by a hand transplant in 1999.
Since then, the list has expanded to include full or partial face transplants, scalp, trachea, abdominal wall, uterus, and external male genitalia. Among recent donors in the U.S., uterus donations have been the most common in this category, followed by head and neck donations and upper limb donations. These transplants require a separate consent process beyond standard organ donation registration, so they remain relatively rare.
How the Type of Death Affects Donation
Not all deaths allow for the same range of organ recovery. The two pathways are donation after brain death and donation after circulatory death. When a person is declared brain dead while on a ventilator, blood and oxygen continue flowing to the organs until they are recovered surgically. This allows the widest range of organs to be transplanted.
Donation after circulatory death happens when life support is withdrawn and the heart stops on its own. Because organs lose blood flow during that transition, transplant rates for each organ tend to be lower. Kidneys hold up best in this scenario, while organs like the pancreas are transplanted far less frequently from circulatory death donors (around 4% of the time, compared to much higher rates from brain death donors). Advances in preservation technology are steadily narrowing this gap, but brain death currently remains the more productive donation pathway.
Age, Health, and Eligibility
There is no age limit for organ donation. In 2021, one in three organ donors was over 50, and the oldest donor on record in the U.S. was 92. Medical teams evaluate each organ individually at the time of death rather than ruling someone out based on age alone. A 70-year-old with healthy kidneys can still be an excellent kidney donor even if their heart isn’t suitable.
Very few medical conditions disqualify someone entirely. Active infections like HIV, hepatitis B or C, tuberculosis, active MRSA, and prion diseases (such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) can prevent donation. But even these are evaluated case by case, and in some situations organs from donors with hepatitis C are now transplanted into recipients who can then be treated with antiviral medications. The general rule is to register as a donor and let the medical team make the determination at the time of death.
What Families Should Know
Organ and tissue recovery does not interfere with funeral plans, including open-casket services. Surgical teams close all incisions and treat the donor’s body with care, so there is no visible difference. The donor’s family is never charged for the donation process itself. All costs related to recovery and transplantation are covered by the recipient’s insurance or the organ procurement organization.
The recovery process typically takes 12 to 24 hours after consent is given, during which the medical team identifies matching recipients through the national system and coordinates surgical teams. For families, the most important practical step is making your wishes known ahead of time. Registering as a donor through your state’s registry and telling your family removes the burden of that decision from them during an already difficult moment.