Unregistered Donors

If a potential donor passes at a hospital, the donor should be retained in the hospital’s morgue until the next business day. 

1. The donor should remain in cold storage. 
2. Tubes, leads, wires, respirators, IVs, catheters, etc. may be removed. (Please treat the donor in a respectful manner.) 
3. A medical caregiver or next-of-kin is to call the Ohio State Body Donation Program (614-292-4831) the next business morning after 8:30 a.m.
4. If a potential donor DOES NOT pass at a hospital, a local funeral home of the family’s choosing, and at the family’s expense, should be engaged to pick up and retain the donor in cold storage until the next business day.
5. Embalming IS NOT an acceptable method of preservation of the donor’s remains.
6. A Funeral Director or medical care giver is to call the Ohio State Body Donation Program (614-292-4831) the next business morning after 8:30 a.m.

Because the Division of Anatomy is a teaching program, there are several criteria in place to enable us to provide the most educational, safest, and healthiest lab environment possible for our students, faculty and staff.

To assist with confirmation of eligibility, the Body Donation Program relies upon open and honest statements regarding the donor’s remains that must be communicated by medical care providers.

The donor’s most recent medical caregiver will be asked a series of questions to determine the donor’s eligibility. 

 Eligibility Confirmation cannot be given for a donor’s remains if any of the following applies:

1. Weight and body mass index factors: if the donor’s remains weigh less than 80 pounds or more than 215 pounds and the remains have a body mass index (BMI) less than 16 or greater than 33, then the remains are not eligible for confirmation. 
2. Contagious disease: the donor had contracted and/or died from a contagious disease including but not limited to: Aspergillosis, Creutzfeldt-Jakob (the human variant of mad-cow disease), Ebola, HIV (AIDS), Hepatitis, Meningitis, SARS, Smallpox, Tuberculosis (TB), etc. The donor had contracted and/or died from a disease or illness contracted at a hospital or medical care facility: including but not limited to: MRSA and Clostridium difficile, etc.
3. Deformities, dislocations or disfigurements: severe contractures or deformities of the body: generally known as contractures – such as shortening of muscles, ligaments, and/or tendons that result in joint disfigurements, that may have been caused by disease, traumatic injury, muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, paralysis, or etc.
4. Severe trauma or open wounds: – such conditions might also arise from recent surgery, amputation or a traumatic injury to the body.
5. Fluid buildup: such as conditions referred to as Ascites, Edema, Septicemia, etc.
6. Removal of organs or body parts: from the donor’s remains at the time of death (except – eye or cornea removal).
7. Decomposition / decay: if the donor’s remains appear to be affected by the process of decomposition.
8. Embalming: if the donor’s remains have been embalmed they are no longer suitable for the Body Donation Program; (donor remains should be preserved through refrigeration only).
9. Autopsy: if the donor’s remains have been subjected to a private and/or coroner’s autopsy then the remains are no longer suitable for the Body Donation Program.

Accordingly, if you, your family, and/or medical providers are aware that any of the above described conditions exist with respect to the donor’s remains then the donor’s next of kin should make other final arrangements for the disposition of the donor’s remains.

Please note that eligibility confirmation for unregistered donors only takes place during regular business hours of the Ohio State Body Donation Program.

If a donor’s remains are accepted into the Body Donation Program (based upon eligibility restrictions described in step 2) then the Body Donation Program will send the donor’s next of kin the four-page donation packet via email or fax. Please determine in advance the contact information for form delivery (email address connected to a printer, fax number, etc.). Either the funeral home or hospital may be able to help. 

Email (BodyDonor@osumc.edu) or fax (614-292-7659) all forms to the program for review and approval.

After eligibility of the donor’s remains is confirmed and the completed forms received by the Body Donation Program, inform the hospital or storing funeral home for which the Program will coordinate transportation arrangements.

*Note: The Ohio State Body Donation will only be responsible for the costs contracted by the program including: transporting the donor’s remains to the Body Donation Program; death certificate preparation fees; and cremation of the remains. Additionally, cremains will either be returned as designated on the bequeathal forms or interred in the mausoleum at the Silent Home Cemetery (1576 Lancaster Ave., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068) at no cost to the family. Any other desired supplemental services including memorial service(s), obituary notices, burial of the cremains and/or placement in a private niche, and/or certified copies of the death certificate from the Ohio Department of Health are at the expense of the donor’s family and/or the donor’s estate and should be arranged with any funeral services provider.