Matching Criteria for Transplants

Who decides which patients get a heart, and why? About twenty people die every day waiting for a transplant. More than 100,000 are waiting for an organ. Think about the typical (median) lengths of times patients wait for a transplant.

  • 4 months for a heart or lung
  • 5 months for a small intestine
  • 9 months for a pancreas
  • 12 months for a liver
  • 39 months for a kidney