What does the donor look like after tissue donation?
With tissue donation, tissues are removed to be given to a patient. This concerns, for example, skin, eye tissue, or heart valves. What does the donor look like after tissue donation? You can read about that here.
Of course, it is important that the donor looks presentable after tissue donation. Therefore, members of the retrieval 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. However, they cannot always prevent bandages from being visible after the surgery. The consequences of tissue removal for the donor's appearance vary per tissue.
Eye tissue
With eye tissue donation, the retrieval team removes the eyeballs and replaces them with eye prostheses. 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. During donation, the retrieval team therefore removes the entire heart. The doctor makes an incision in the chest for this. After the removal, the team stitches the wound and places bandages over it. If the donor is wearing clothing with a higher neckline, nothing of this can be seen.
Skin
The retrieval team removes skin from the donor's back, legs, buttocks, and sides. 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 in a special suit. This is necessary because the body can lose fluid. Usually, the suit can be well hidden with clothing. The donor's body can no longer be washed after skin donation.
Bone, cartilage, and tendons
With the donation of bone tissue, cartilage, and tendon tissue, the retrieval team removes these from the upper arms, legs, and/or pelvis. Only if heart valve donation also takes place does the team also remove the cartilage from the ribs. The team replaces the bones with prostheses that are biodegradable. This keeps the shape of the body as much the same as possible. The retrieval 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 are not visible. Sometimes it is necessary to make an incision through a tattoo before the surgery. If a surviving relative does not want this, they can discuss it with the doctor.