A Guide to Lung Transplantation

TOC | Previous | Next

How Will You Get Your Donor Lung?

In the United States, all organs available for transplantation are listed on a national transplant waiting list maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The UNOS list matches donor organs to potential recipients, based on a number of criteria:

• the amount of time a candidate has been on the waiting list
• compatibility of donor and recipient (blood type, lung size)

Every medical center matches donors and recipients through UNOS, but each center has its own rules for accepting or declining transplant candidates.

Your donor lung(s) come from a person whose brain function has stopped and whose organs have been made available for transplantation. You will never know the name of your organ donor because transplant centers respect donor confidentiality. Working through your transplant center, you can send an anonymous letter of appreciation to the donor's family.

Criteria for matching donors and recipients change from time to time. To get current information, you may contact UNOS at the toll-free telephone number given at the end of this brochure.

TOC | Previous | Next

3300 Dundee Road • Northbrook, Illinois 60062-2348 • (847) 498-1400 • (800) 343-2227
Copyright ©1999-2009 American College of Chest Physicians. All Rights Reserved.
ACCP Privacy Policy | ACCP Web Site Terms of Use