INTEGRIS Health transplant teams often retrieve their own donated hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers and pancreata, transporting them back to Oklahoma for transplantation.
The INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute has traveled to more than 20 states to collect donated organs. Sometimes, trusted donor institutions may retrieve and deliver organs to our Oklahoma City hospital.
Hearts and lungs must be transplanted within four hours of retrieval, livers within 12 to 16 hours and kidneys within 40 hours, though typically within 24. This urgency makes the institute's central Oklahoma City location advantageous for receiving nationwide donations.
With more than 127,000 people on the national waiting list, donor organs are in high demand. The Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute has received numerous stories from donor families, highlighting the profound impact of organ donation.
You don't need to be a blood relative to receive a donor organ. A living donor can be a close friend, spouse or even a stranger. To qualify, donors must be healthy, physically fit, free from chronic diseases and psychiatric conditions, and aged 18 to 60. Race and gender are not factors.
In Oklahoma, only 61% are registered to be organ, tissue or eye donors.
