General facts about organ donation:

¦ Only about five percent of people who die in the Intensive Care Unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital are able to be donors.

¦ Only those patients who have been tested and found to be brain dead are eligible, due to ethical reasons.

¦ In 2001, there were three cases in ICU where patients were brain dead and able to donate. Only two families agreed to organ removal.

n People from birth to 84-years-of-age may be considered as possible organ donors.

¦ Doctors have just four hours, from start to finish, to remove a heart or lungs and transplant it into a recipient.

¦ Kidneys can be removed from a donor and preserved for a maximum of 72 hours before being transplanted.

¦ Livers, and all other organs, can be removed and preserved for up to 24 hours before being transplanted.

¦ In the United States, a new name is added to a transplant waiting list every 30 minutes.

¦ Six people die every day in America while waiting for a transplant that did not arrive in time.