Donate Life coordinates all organ and tissue donor activities across the state. It works with hospitals and hospital-based Donate Life medical and nursing specialists to provide professional donation services and encourage best practice to increase donation rates.
To contact DonateLife in your state or territory please visit:
donatelife.gov.au/about-us/donatelife-network
Donate Life SA activities include:
·raising awareness about organ and tissue donation
·encouraging discussion about donation
·educating health professionals about the donation process offering care and support to donor families.
What can be donated?:
Organ and tissue donation can save and transform the lives of those Australians who receive a transplant.
Organ and tissue donation involves removing organs and tissue from someone who has died (a donor) and transplanting them into someone who, in many cases, is very ill or dying (a recipient).
The decision to donate organs and tissue is an act of extraordinary generosity.
Organ and Tissue donation:
Organs that can be transplanted includes:Heart, Lungs, Liver, Kidney, Pancreas and Pancreas Islets
Tissue that can be transplanted includes: heart valves and other heart tissue, blood veins, bone, veins, tendons, ligaments, skin and parts of the eye.
The donation process:
Donating your organs and tissue for transplantation can dramatically improve lives. One organ donor can transform up to SEVEN lives. Right now there are around 1,400 Australians waitlisted for a life-changing organ transplant.
The donation process typically happens in four stages:
-Registering to be a donor
-Talk with your family (In Australia family consent is always sought before donation can proceed- even if you are registered)
-Donation after death
-Transplantation
You can no longer register to be an organ and tissue donor on your driver’s licence unless you are in South Australia. If you previously registered to be a donor on your driver’s licence, you now need to join the Australian Organ Donor Register. It takes less than a minute online at donatelife.gov.au
