• Every three days an individual in Ontario dies waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.

• $12 million could be saved in the healthcare system if organ donations increased by just 10%.

• Everyone is a potential organ and tissue donor, regardless of their age. Ultimately, the ability to become an organ and tissue donor depends on several factors including the health of the organs and tissue at the time of death.

• Organs and tissue that can be donated after death include the heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lungs, small bowel, stomach, corneas, heart valves, bone and skin.

• Studies show that donating the organs and tissue of a loved one who has died can provide immediate comfort and long-lasting consolation to family members in their grieving.

• Living donors can and do donate kidney and part of their liver to a loved one.

Sign you donor card.  Talk to your family.  Say you’re giving the gift of life.

• You are more likely to need a transplant than become a donor.  According to the Multiple Organ Retrieval Exchange (MORE), 100 Canadians in a million will need a transplant while currently only 15 in a million will ever be in a situation to be donor.
   

• Statistics reveal you are more likely to need a transplant than become a donor.  According to the Multiple Organ Retrieval Exchange (MORE), 100 Canadians in a million will need a transplant while currently only 15 in a million will ever be in a situation to be donors.
   

• To be a donor, the patient must be in the hospital, on a ventilator and declared brain dead by two physicians who work outside the transplant process.  Brain death occurs after head injuries or head traumas such as strokes, aneurysms or bleeding in the brain.
   

• In 1997, 100 people died waiting for an organ transplant.  At the end of 1997, 3,072 people were on organ transplant waiting lists.
   

• From January 1998 to September 1999, 90 transplants were performed on Canadian pediatric patients (<18 years of age) and 54 are on waiting lists.
   

• There are no age limits to becoming a donor; physical health is more important than chronological age.
   

• Improvements in anti-rejection drugs continue to increase the success rates of transplants.
   

• When a donor organ becomes available, it’s matched with a person who is waiting for that organ.  The health, organ size, and blood type of the potential recipient are factors in determining who will receive a transplant next.  Factors such as gender, race, or financial status are not taken into account.
   

• Ninety-four per cent of Canadians agree that organ donation allows something positive to come out of a person’s death.
   

• Each province has its own method for indicating your wishes about organ donation.  It may be through your health card, your driver’s license, a provincial registry, or through completion of a card from an organization, like SODA, that promotes organ donation.
   

• Your signature alone does not guarantee that your organs will be donated.  Although a signed card or registry provides legal consent, doctors are hesitant to proceed with organ donation if family members have objections.  Therefore, make your family members aware of you wishes.
   

• All major religions support the concept of organ donation because it saves the lives of fellow human beings.  Religious restrictions about treatment of the body after death may not apply if the purpose is to save another life.  Consult with your religious leader.
   

• The donor body is treated with dignity and respect when organ or tissue donation is carried out.  An open casket funeral can still be held and not one will know that a donation has taken place unless the family chooses to share that information.