What Can I Donate?

Organ and tissue donation is vital to the health and well-being of many Nova Scotians. Each year, organ and tissue donation brings renewed hope and enjoyment to hundreds of recipients in Nova Scotia.

What organs can I donate?

Organs such as kidneys, the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and small bowel may be transplanted. Most organs come from registered donors who have died, but a living person can also give a kidney, or a portion of the liver or lung.

What tissues can I donate?

Corneas, sclera (the white outer covering of the eye), skin, heart valves, bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments can be donated. Donated tissue can be used to restore sight, cover eye injuries, treat critically burned patients, repair heart defects and restore mobility.

For more information on organs and tissues, please read the Other Questions section.

Did you know?

• As an organ donor, you can save as many as eight lives, and as a tissue donor, you can help as many as 40 others.
• Living donation is also an important source of organs for transplant.
• Currently, more than 130 Nova Scotians are waiting for organs. Countless others need life-enhancing tissues.
• In 2006, there was a Canada-wide shortage of life-saving skin for burn victims.
• Patients benefited from a 25% increase in the number of organ transplants performed in Atlantic Canada in 2006.
• Many of the 147 organ transplants completed in Atlantic Canada in 2006 were for Nova Scotian recipients, including 46 kidney transplants, one simultaneous pancreas/kidney transplant, 18 liver transplants and six heart transplants.
• Donated tissues are used every day in operating rooms across Canada.
• People of any age can be organ donors.
• People up to the age of 80 can be tissue donors.
• Organ and tissue donation can help grieving families find comfort in knowing some good has come from their tragic situation.