ORGAN DONATIONS

Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 19 others die waiting for a donated organ. Organs cannot be stored and must be used within hours of removing them from the donor's body. What can be donated and transplanted:
Organs: Kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and the intestines.
Tissues: Corneas, the middle ear, skin, heart valves, bone, veins, cartilage, tendons and ligaments can be stored in tissue banks.
Stem cells: Sources are marrow, the soft tissue found in the interior cavities of bones; peripheral blood stem cells, the same types of stem cells found in marrow, can be pushed out into a donor's bloodstream after the donor receives daily injections of a medication called filgrastim; and blood from the umbilical cord that connects a fetus to the mother during pregnancy.
Blood and platelets: Donors can give whole blood every 56 days and can give platelets, tiny cell fragments that circulate throughout the blood and aid in blood clotting, twice in one week up to 24 times a year.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services