In cases like bone marrow, some kidney transplants and a small number of liver transplants, the donor may be a living relative or person that shares the same compatibility of tissue and immune system responses that create a match. Much has to be done in the way of medical evaluations before a person is authorized to be placed on the UNOS list and becomes a viable transplant candidate. There is really no way of knowing how long a candidate may wait for an organ once he or she is accepted onto the list, but the allocation and distribution system developed by UNOS is objective and based on strict medical criteria. A match is first attempted on a local basis, to candidates closest to where the donor organ becomes available. Only after failing to find a match locally will efforts expand regionally, and finally, nationally.
Every effort is made to find a match for every donor organ that becomes available.
There are over 260 transplant centers throughout the United States that specialize in organ transplant procedures. When a donor organ is identified, it takes a dedicated team of people to find the right recipient and make the transplant a success. A recovery team specializes in removing and maintaining the viability of the donated organ. The UNOS organization has a Placement Specialist on the recovery team who finds a match on the waiting list based on the parameters of the UNOS point system, including the tissue compatibility between the available organ and the recipient. The specialist then notifies the recipient's transplant team to begin immediate preparations for the procedure.