What does the donor look like after tissue donation?
During tissue donation, tissues are removed to give to a patient. This can include skin, eye tissue, or heart valves, for example. What does the donor look like after tissue donation? You can read about that here.
Naturally, it is important that the donor looks neat after tissue donation. Therefore, members of the recovery team do not remove anything from areas that are visible when the donor is laid out. The removal of tissues is always done carefully and with attention to the appearance of the deceased. Still, they cannot always prevent bandages from being visible after the surgery. The consequences that tissue removal has for the donor's appearance vary per tissue.
Eye tissue
During eye tissue donation, the recovery team removes the eyeballs and places eye prostheses back. They close the eyes. This makes the face look normal again.
Heart valves
The tissue bank needs the entire heart to examine whether the heart valves are suitable for transplantation. Therefore, during donation, the recovery team removes the entire heart. To do this, the doctor makes an incision in the chest. After the removal, the team stitches the wound and places bandages over it. If the donor is wearing clothing with a higher neckline, this is no longer visible.
Skin
The recovery team removes skin from the back, legs, buttocks, and flanks of the donor. These are very thin layers of skin. From the back, they can sometimes take a thicker layer of skin tissue. After the surgery, the donor is put into a special suit. This is necessary because the body can lose fluids. Usually, the suit is easily hidden with clothing. The donor's body can no longer be washed after skin donation.
Bone, cartilage, and tendons
During the donation of bone tissue, cartilage, and tendon tissue, the recovery team removes these from the upper arms, legs, and/or pelvis. Only if a heart valve donation is also taking place does the team also remove the cartilage from the ribs. The team replaces the bones with biodegradable prostheses. This keeps the shape of the body as much the same as possible. The recovery team stitches the wounds and then places bandages over them.
If the deceased is wearing long sleeves and long pants or a skirt, the consequences of the surgery cannot be seen. Sometimes it is necessary before the surgery to make an incision through a tattoo. If a surviving relative does not want this, they can discuss it with the doctor.