Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse collaborates with three recovery agencies to honor our patients' wishes for organ, tissue and eye donation at the time of death:

• University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics Organ Procurement
• Wisconsin Tissue Bank
• Lion's Eyebank of Wisconsin

At death, all patients are evaluated and if medically eligible, recovery is coordinated with the appropriate recovery agency. Recovery occurs in the operating room, does not delay funeral arrangements or an open casket viewing. There is no additional medical expense to the family of an organ or tissue donor.

There are 105,000 people on waiting lists for organ donations in the U.S., and 1,500 still wait in Wisconsin. Hundreds more wait for their sight to be restored through eye donation, and thousands wait for the chance to live without pain through a bone or soft tissue transplant. Eighteen people will die today because they didn't get a transplant in time.

Contact our donation liaison at 608-392-9496 to learn more about donation or visit the Donate Life Wisconsin website.