Organ donation in a fact check: This is how heart, lung and kidney donation works

»The first thing is: Doctors are always concerned with saving human life.

Secondly, organ donation is only possible if brain death, the irreversible loss of all brain functions, has been proven.

This has to be done by two independent doctors.

So this is one of the diagnoses with the highest certainty.

And when you put all of that together, the likelihood of you becoming an organ donor is extremely low.

In Germany, approximately only one in a thousand people who dies becomes an organ donor.

So you see, these are extreme exceptions.

And only with optimal intensive therapy, which is also an important aspect: only with optimal intensive therapy, where everything has been done to save human life beforehand, is organ donation even possible.«

“This is actually the most common prejudice and an absolutely wrong one.

For example, the oldest donor we had in Germany was 98 years old.

What is the crucial point?

The crucial point is that you look very carefully at each potential organ donor to see whether the organs are suitable for an organ transplant.

To do this, we carry out examinations together with the hospitals to ensure that the organs are of appropriate quality.

You can imagine that too.

Of course, that depends on how you have treated your body throughout your life.

Unfortunately, you can have damaged organs at a young age through smoking, alcohol or the like.

But you can also have donor kidneys that function wonderfully well into old age and a liver that gives a person a new life.

“It is a very central concern that the organ donor is treated with dignity.

Organ removal is like a normal operation.

A very careful wound closure is then carried out afterwards.

The relatives can say goodbye to the deceased after the organ removal and see that the deceased was treated very carefully.

That it is actually still intact from the look of it.

So I don’t have to worry that someone would somehow notice this organ removal.”

»Interestingly, all religions that are represented in Germany are in principle behind organ donation.

In the Christian religion, for example, it is said: This is an act of charity.

This is the greatest gift one can give after death.

In Islam it is also said: Whoever has saved a human life - and with organ donation you can even save several human lives - whoever has saved a human life has saved all of humanity.

So that too is a signal that keeps coming.

And Judaism also has a positive opinion about organ donation.«

»It used to be the case that people always associated organ donation with: It's a motorcycle accident.

This is an absolute rarity, thank God.

The helmets provide the motorcyclist’s head with extra protection.

So if you look at the statistics, accidents - and these are not just traffic accidents, they can also be household accidents - are around 15 percent of all organ donors.

So they are completely in the background compared to other causes such as a cerebral hemorrhage or a stroke.