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Overview

Many individuals have indicated a desire to donate organs, eyes, or tissues for transplantation to others, but are unable to do so due to a variety of medically related reasons including age, health status, and cause of death. At the same time, the need for anatomic donations for the purpose of scientific research, education, and disease management or cures continues to grow.

The Alabama Organ Center, in conjunction with the International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) through the Gift of Body program provides an option to families who wish to donate but may be ineligible to do so for transplantation purposes. These tissues may be accepted for medical education, training, and research. These donations will serve the local and national research / medical communities.

Registration Process

Pre-registration: Allows individuals that are interested in donating their body to science to complete all the necessary paperwork prior to death. The consent from, medical-social history forms, and the vital statistics form can be completed and witnessed for return to the Alabama Organ Center. When the Alabama Organ Center receives your information packet, you will receive a confirmation and instruction sheet to share with your family for notifying the Alabama Organ Center when the death occurs. Upon death, the information will be verified and the medical-social history forms will be updated.

At-need: Your legal next of kin can make a decision to donate a loved one’s body for medical research. This situation may occur when the family member has shared the decision to donate for the advancement of medical education with their legal next of kin, but did not pre-register for the donation. In the event that a death occurs prior to registration, the legal next of kin should contact the Alabama Organ Center at 1-800-252-3677 immediately to facilitate the donation process.

Sequence of Events

Donor referrals are accepted from hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices.

  • The referral is made to made to the Alabama Organ Center
  • Consent and medical-social history obtained or updated
  • Donor is transported to the Alabama Organ Center recovery location in Birmingham, AL
  • Procurement of tissues for research
  • Serological testing
  • Cremation of remains as applicable
  • Placement of tissues with IIAM or UAB
  • Cremains return to family (within 5-10 days after recovery)
  • Donor family follow-up
  • Distribution of four death certificates (within 3-4 weeks after recovery)

Tissue Distribution

Currently, tissues are provided to over 60 research entities, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies worldwide, servicing more than 200 individual researchers. In 2002, IIAM’s Gift of Body Program received nearly 400 donors, which in turn provided 1700 specimens to their research partners. Priorities are given to research entities in the referral program’s region, although the over-riding commitment is to insure that donated tissues are used to their best purposes as quickly as possible.

The need for Human Tissue

Surgical Technique Training:

  • Open heart surgery, aneurysm repair, spinal surgery, new and existing surgeons

Development of New Instrumentation:

  • Laparoscopic devices, minimally invasive tools

Orthopedic Studies:

  • Joint disease, bone fractures

Trauma Research:

  • Bone reconstruction, neurological studies

Drug Development:

  • Drug delivery interaction, toxicology, drug delivery (patch, nasal spray, topical creams)

Donor Family Services

Services that are provided to donor families include:

  • Option to receive cremains in a temporary urn following the donation within 5-10 days
  • Thank you letter to donor family with summary of uses of tissue
  • Filing of death certificate
  • Obtaining 4 Certified Death Certificates at no cost
  • Assistance obtaining burial flag for discharged veteran’s

Benefit to Donor Family

The benefits realized by the donor family are many:

Option for donation to benefit medical research, education, and development; ultimately serving mankind

Become part of an elite group of individuals throughout the county who are donor families, having given a gift of life through transplant or research

No cost incurred by the donor family for services provided by the Alabama Organ Center

For more information contact Alan Hicks alan.hicks@ccc.uab.edu.