Estimating the Non—Heart-Beating Donor Potential at a Trauma Center

The number of people awaiting a life-saving transplant far outweighs the number of organs available for transplantation. Our organ procurement organization sought to identify the Non—Heart-beating donor potential at a large urban level 1 trauma center. We modified the death-record reviews for a 2-year period and determined that a total of 23 patients who expired were suitable for Non—Heart-beating donation. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that if all large urban level 1 trauma centers participated in Non—Heart-beating donation, more organs would be available for transplantation.