IOPO Professionals match the donor patient's organs to desperately waiting patients. IOPO coordinates the surgical recovery of the organs and comforts the family.
An IOPO Organ Procurement Coordinator (OPO), having received consent for the organ recovery to proceed, reviews medical and social histories of the patient and compares these to the data about the patients on the transplant list in order to identify potential matches. Every attempt is made to match the needed organs with compatible recipients in order to save the maximum number of lives from the gift this patient is giving.
Once the organs are matched to the potential donors, the OPO works to coordinate getting each transplant team scheduled to arrive at the hospital to procure the organ(s) they will be transplanting back at their hospital.
The medical teams fly or are otherwise transported to the hospital to obtain the gifts that the donor and his/her family have so selflessly agreed to give.
The organ procurement surgery is done in a sterile operating room setting with a full staff of medical professionals in attendance. Great care is taken and the victim is shown tremendous respect throughout the organ recovery process. As each organ to be donated is recovered, it is carefully packaged for transport. In the case of a heart and select other vital organs, the transplant surgeon who will actually be performing the transplant is often in the room to personally inspect the heart/organ and to procure it for the transplant.
Once all of the organs are obtained, the OPO gently and with reverence completes the surgical close process preparing the body for the family to say their goodbyes and making the body appear as natural as possible. Throughout this process the IOPO Family Services Coordinator stays with the family, keeping them informed about what is happening and providing a loving, compassionate ear to the families needs.
Each IOPO professional is highly sensitive to the families needs in the grieving process. Once the organ procurement process is complete, IOPO and hospital personnel take the family back to see their loved one for the last time prior to the funeral service.
Many donors are both organ and tissue donors. If the donor in question has so elected, the next step in the process is tissue donation. Click next to read about the tissue recovery process.