Organ donation support

The Cardiff Critical Care Unit, in common with all other ICU’s in the UK, supports organ and tissue donation.

Organ donation is considered when brainstem death is diagnosed or the continuation of further treatment would be futile. These decisions are made by at least two senior Intensive Care doctors. In these circumstances we work closely with Specialist Nurses for Organ Donation who are trained to support families by providing information to help them reach the right decision for them.

The legislation around organ donation changed in Wales from 1st December 2015, with a new law of presumed consent. If you are not already aware of what this means for you it is worth looking at the Welsh Government website to see what choices you can make.

A further useful resource is the NHS Blood and Transplant website. This has a great deal of information, but importantly addresses a number of myths and concerns that people may have about organ donation, including whether their religion supports donation or not.