Donor hearts may originate in foreign donors but come chiefly from Dutch ones.
For donor hearts, a distinction is made between two types of donors:
Organ donors are deceased donors who still have circulation (often in the case of brain death). This means that the organs (such as the heart) can still be retrieved for donation. If, for various reasons, the heart is no longer of suitable quality to be used for heart transplantation, the valves can often still be used.
Such hearts are sent to the heart valve bank.Tissue donors have died and therefore no longer have any circulation. As a result, they can no longer donate organs, only tissue. Donors’ causes of death can be very diverse (provided that the cause of death does not constitute a contraindication), but they will have typically died of cardiac arrest or heart attack.
The Netherlands Transplantation Foundation (NTS) reviews the consent granted for tissue donation and assesses the donor’s suitability.