About your donor


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

Key points

  • You will need to know basic medical information about your donor
  • The health of your donor may influence the health of the lung that is being donated to you, which may affect your health
  • Some donated lungs are likely to work for longer than others
  • All donated lungs carry some risk, though in general this is much lower than the risks posed to you by your lung disease

What do you need to know about your donor?

This means that you and the transplant team looking after you may need to make a difficult decision about whether a particular lung is right for you. There are many things that can affect how well a donated lung will work after a transplant.

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 lung disease.

It is important to know some information about your donor to find out things that could affect the health of your lung transplant.

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 lung

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

More information



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