LifeBanc

Description

About LifeBanc / Contact Us

There is an urgent need for more registered organ and tissue donors in Ohio and across the United States. Everyone can join the Ohio Donor Registry to become an organ and tissue donor. The simple fact is that organ and tissue donation saves lives. One organ donor can save eight lives, while one tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people. Unfortunately, more than 95,000 men, women and children nationwide are currently awaiting a life-saving organ transplant. Thousands on that waiting list live in Ohio.

LifeBanc is the non-profit organ procurement and tissue recovery agency for Northeast Ohio. As one of the original seven independent organ procurement organizations in the United States, LifeBanc serves a population of 4.3 million people and works with 80 hospitals in 20 counties. LifeBanc is a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB).

For more than 20 years, LifeBanc has transformed death into life. Working to save the lives of others by recovering organs and tissue in a timely manner has been LifeBanc's main objective.

Thousands of Ohioans are alive today because of LifeBanc. Along with serving the public, professional community and donor hospitals, LifeBanc provides life-saving organs to three transplant centers: The Cleveland Clinic, Summa Health System - Akron City Hospitals and University Hospitals of Cleveland. Recovered tissue is transplanted countless times in hospitals throughout the region.

Annually, LifeBanc's volunteers and staff educate nearly 100,000 students and adults in an effort to provide accurate information, engage the public and increase the number of registered organ and tissue donors. LifeBanc also provides bereavement services to families touched by donation, offering them support, comfort and care throughout the grieving process.

Recently, national and statewide efforts from the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative have dramatically increased the number of organ donors, organ yield, conversion and consent rates, and ultimately organs transplanted and lives saved. However, the demand for organs far exceeds the number available for transplantation. Even with the great strides made by this national initiative, 19 people die each day because an organ is not available.