Organ donors

Anyone can express their wish to donate their organs after their death. There is no age limit. It is only the condition of the organs that matters.

In other words, biological age rather than legal age is key. The liver of a 70-year-old could be in better condition than the liver of a 40-year-old.

The potential donor

A potential organ donor is someone whose fatal injuries cause blood circulation to stop, as a result of which their brain is damaged. This is referred to as brain death or encephalic death.

The brain cannot survive when blood circulation stops and oxygen is no longer supplied.

When a person is declared brain dead, artificial respiration and other resuscitation techniques can be used to artificially maintain the function of that person's other organs for some time. This is possible as long as there has not been a definitive cardiac and respiratory arrest.

Organs that can be transplanted

All vital organs can be transplanted. This means that one single donor can save several lives!

The most frequently transplanted organs are:

• kidney,
• liver,
• lung,
• heart,
• pancreas,
• parts of the intestine.

Tissue donation is also possible, including:

• skin,
• bone marrow,
• veins,
• tendons,
• cornea, etc.

Organ donation figures for Luxembourg

In 2019, there were 76 people in Luxembourg waiting for an organ transplant. As at 1 October, 15 patients had received a transplant.

Globally, 2020 was characterised by a major reduction in organ donations and transplants. Luxembourg was no different, with just 3 multi-organ removals (2017: 9 donations; 2018: 7 donations; 2019: 5 donations). However, 13 organs from Luxembourg were successfully transplanted by centres in the EUROTRANSPLANT network. 81 patients were added (+16 compared with 2019) to the pre-transplant list waiting for a transplant in a foreign centre. 20 new patients were added to the list during the course of the year, and one of the patients on the list died in 2020. In 2020, 13 people resident in Luxembourg received a transplant in a foreign centre.