About your donor

Why it’s important to know some medical information about your donor

Key points

Your transplant team will discuss donor-related risk and different types of donors with you when you are put on the transplant list
Tests will be done on the donor to check their health and the health of their heart
You may need to know basic medical information about your donor when a heart offer is accepted for you
All donated hearts carry some risk, though in general this is much lower than the risk from your heart disease

What do you need to know about your donor?

There are many things that can affect how well a donated heart will work after a transplant. The health of your donor and their heart is one of them.

All donated organs carry some risk, but this will vary from donor to donor. In general, this risk is much lower than the risks posed by your heart disease.

Your transplant team will discuss donor-related risk and different types of donors with you when you are put on the national transplant waiting list. You can decide what types of organs might be suitable for you. Discussions about donor-related risk are often best had at the time of being put on the national waiting list.

On occasion, it may be important to know some information about your donor when you have been admitted to hospital for a heart transplant. If there are unusual risks that a donated heart might carry, your transplant team will discuss this with you.

The transplant team will not accept an organ for you if the risks are thought to be more than the benefits of the transplant.

Watch our short video about donor information

Factors that can affect the health of your transplanted organ

The age of your donor
Whether your donor had any serious diseases or health issues

Learn about the risks from a donated heart

Gathering information about deceased donors

This is not always straightforward and it can sometimes be difficult to gather health information about a deceased donor. This is because:

We cannot ask deceased donors about their previous health
Donors may not have told their loved ones or GP about their health issues
There may only be a short time available to carry out tests on the donor

Answers to common questions

How is information collected?

Before you are offered a heart from a deceased donor, a specialist nurse in organ donation will collect information on the donor’s health issues and lifestyle.

These specialist nurses are employed by NHS Blood and Transplant. They will go to the hospital where the donor is being cared for and speak to the donor’s family and to the team looking after them.

The nurses will get as much information as possible about the donor, but time may be short.

What tests will be done on a deceased donor?

Blood tests and some scans can be carried out on the donor. The scans and blood tests will check the donor’s heart function and other organ function, and look for signs of infection in the blood. Other detailed scans to further study heart function may also be carried out.

Tests will be carried out to look for HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, as well as many other infections. These tests are very sensitive, but may be negative if the donor became infected just before their death.

What happens with the information?

The information on your donor will be passed to the heart transplant team looking after you.

If there are unusual risks that a donated heart might carry, your transplant team will discuss this with you.

The transplant team will not accept an organ for you if the risks are thought to be more than the benefits of the transplant.

It is important to understand that all donated hearts may carry a risk of passing on serious diseases such as cancer or infections such as hepatitis or HIV, though these risks are very small. There is no test that can reduce the risk of disease after organ transplantation to zero.

Can I choose not to be told this information?

Why can’t I find out more about my deceased donor?