> Donation and Transplantation Statistics

SharetheFacts

Data Reported from UNOS, OPTN, and Donate Life America, as of January 2023.

  • Donor registration status DOES NOT IMPACT the level of care an individual receives in the hospital.
  • Do not rule yourself out because of medical history or age. YOU COULD BE SOMEONE’S HERO.
  • EVERY 9 MINUTES, another person is added to the national organ transplant waiting list. Seventeen lives are lost every day due to the lack of organs available for transplantation.
  • YOUR DECISION MATTERS. South Carolina is a first-person authorization state. Once you register, either at the SCDMV or online, share your decision with your family so they are educated and can be aware of your end-of-life wishes.
  • More than 104,000 PEOPLE in the U.S. are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, with more than 1,500 of those in the state of South Carolina.
  • An OPEN CASKET FUNERAL is still possible after organ, eye and tissue donation.
  • ALL MAJOR RELIGIONS in the United States support organ donation as a last gift of generosity.
  • The EIGHT TRANSPLANTABLE ORGANS are: heart, liver, kidney (2), lungs (2), small intestines and pancreas.
  • Donated tissues such as SKIN, BONE AND HEART VALVES can dramatically improve the quality of life for recipients, and even potentially save lives.
  • Each year, approximately 58,000 TISSUE DONORS provide life-enhancing and healing tissue for transplant.
  • Approximately 2.5 MILLION TISSUE TRANSPLANTS are performed each year and one tissue donor can restore health and heal the lives of more than 75 people.
  • Donated TISSUE CAN SAVE PATIENTS facing life-threatening burns, allow athletes with torn ligaments or tendons to heal and regain strength, restore hope and mobility to military men and women whose bones or joints have been injured in combat, and repair musculoskeletal structures, teeth, skin, and spinal components in many patients.
  • Cornea donation is necessary for the preservation and restoration of sight. One donor can GIVE THE GIFT OF SIGHT to two people.

Make a difference and become an organ & tissue donor today! REGISTER