Call (09) 630 0935 early, and before donation is raised with the whānau. You do not need to have established that donation is possible — that is what the call is for.
Calling early prevents the two situations everyone wants to avoid: donation raised with a whānau when it was never possible, and excluding a patient who could have been a donor.
Organ donation. As soon as you recognise a patient with severe brain damage who is likely to die, or a ventilated patient in whom intensive therapies are likely to be withdrawn. In the emergency department, for any patient on an end-of-life pathway — after discussing it with your local ICU specialist, and before ICU admission is discussed with the whānau.
Tissue donation. At any point, including after the patient has died. Tissue donation does not have to take place immediately.
When you are not sure. A two-minute conversation settles eligibility before anything is said at the bedside. There are very few circumstances in which a patient cannot donate any organ or tissue at all.
The coordinator liaises with the transplant teams and tissue banks to determine what can be donated, then tells you. They organise the donation, set the time for the donor operation, and travel with the surgical teams. Unless the whānau declines, they meet the whānau beforehand.
Afterwards they phone the staff involved to say what the outcome was and write a week later with an update on the recipients.
A brief handover. The donor coordinator requests preliminary information and liaises with the ODNZ medical specialist, who liaises with the intensivist. Where suitability is uncertain, the coordinator discusses it with the transplant services. They will then confirm whether donation is possible, and for which organs and tissues.
Contact ODNZ prior to taking the donor blood pack, on (09) 630 0935.
Ensure the blood form is signed, and that the pink top tube for ABO and Rh grouping is handwritten. Label all other tubes and the laboratory form with patient stickers. Check the tubes are not expired.
ODNZ will arrange a courier.
Donor bloods are not tested until after the whānau agrees to donation.
ODNZ requires the following:
Email these to the on-call donor coordinator at contactus@donor.co.nz.
Call (09) 630 0935 early, and before donation is raised with the whānau. You do not need to have established that donation is possible — that is what the call is for.
Calling early prevents the two situations everyone wants to avoid: donation raised with a whānau when it was never possible, and excluding a patient who could have been a donor.
Organ donation. As soon as you recognise a patient with severe brain damage who is likely to die, or a ventilated patient in whom intensive therapies are likely to be withdrawn. In the emergency department, for any patient on an end-of-life pathway — after discussing it with your local ICU specialist, and before ICU admission is discussed with the whānau.
Tissue donation. At any point, including after the patient has died. Tissue donation does not have to take place immediately.
When you are not sure. A two-minute conversation settles eligibility before anything is said at the bedside. There are very few circumstances in which a patient cannot donate any organ or tissue at all.
The coordinator liaises with the transplant teams and tissue banks to determine what can be donated, then tells you. They organise the donation, set the time for the donor operation, and travel with the surgical teams. Unless the whānau declines, they meet the whānau beforehand.
Afterwards they phone the staff involved to say what the outcome was and write a week later with an update on the recipients.
A brief handover. The donor coordinator requests preliminary information and liaises with the ODNZ medical specialist, who liaises with the intensivist. Where suitability is uncertain, the coordinator discusses it with the transplant services. They will then confirm whether donation is possible, and for which organs and tissues.
Contact ODNZ prior to taking the donor blood pack, on (09) 630 0935.
Ensure the blood form is signed, and that the pink top tube for ABO and Rh grouping is handwritten. Label all other tubes and the laboratory form with patient stickers. Check the tubes are not expired.
ODNZ will arrange a courier.
Donor bloods are not tested until after the whānau agrees to donation.
ODNZ requires the following:
Email these to the on-call donor coordinator at contactus@donor.co.nz.