About your donor

Protecting the anonymity of the donors is of paramount importance. 

It is acceptable to find out the following about your donor:

1. Age range
2. Gender
3. Type of death (such as trauma or CVA)
4. Whether the donor poses a greater risk of transmission of infection or malignancy.

You will not be told anything that could be used to identify the donor. 

The following donor information should not be available to you:

1. Name or initials
2. Occupation or social class
3. Date of birth (D.O.B.)
4. Place of donation
5. Ethnicity
6. Sexual, alcohol or drug history

If specific information is required (such as smoking history), that information may be given so long as donor confidentiality is maintained and the information is relevant to the outcome.

Protecting your anonymity is just as important as protecting the anonymity of your donor. 

The donor’s family will only be told the following details about you:

1. Age range (decade)
2. Gender
3. Outcome of the transplant

It's up to the donor's family if they want to know the outcome of the transplant. If they do, a specialist nurse in Organ Donation will contact the donor family no more than 15 working days post-donation.

The donor family will be told some information about the organ outcome and thanked for their generosity at a time of great adversity. The letter will include details of whether the organs have been successfully transplanted, sent for research or found to be unsuitable for transplantation.

Organ outcome information is collected from the transplant centre for feedback to donor families, but also as a mandatory requirement on behalf of the Human Tissue Authority.

Before you are offered a lung 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 friends and family and to the medical team looking after them.

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

Blood tests and some scans can be carried out on the donor. The blood tests will check the donor’s kidney function, liver function, and look for signs of infection in the blood.

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.

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

You will be told if:

• Your donor had health problems that are likely to influence how long a donated lung might last after it is transplanted
• Your donor had any serious diseases that could affect you after the transplant

It is important to understand that all donated lungs 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.

Yes. Some patients waiting for a lung would prefer not to be told information about the donor. Please tell your lung transplant team beforehand if you do not wish to be told any information about the deceased donor.

Your lung transplant team are not able to give you information that might allow you to identify the deceased donor, for instance through an internet search. It is important that we respect the confidentiality of the deceased donor and their family.