Thinking beyond organ donation

While everyone appreciates the life-saving role of organ donation, few are aware of the benefits of bone and tissue donation, write PlusLife’s Anne Cowie.


For over 28 years, PlusLife has been at the forefront of managing tissue donations in Western Australia through the State’s only bone bank. 

PlusLife’s Anne Cowie

We have played a part in providing human bone and soft tissue allografts for patients undergoing life-transforming procedures from complex joint surgery to the correction of spinal deformities and treatments for dental and facial bone loss. In some cases, allograft donations have helped save children with cancer the distress of a limb amputation. 

It is extraordinary work in which every staff member at PlusLife feels privileged to be involved. 

Through its two donor programs, patients having a total hip replacement operation can donate the ball part of their hip, which is processed into a ground-up form and can be used as donated graft for others. And, like organ donation, bone, tendons and ligaments can be donated after death with consent from the deceased person’s next-of-kin. 

Every donation is precious.
Our expert technicians carefully retrieve, test, store and process each donated bone, tendon, or ligament to ensure that we produce allograft material that is fit for purpose and that there is no wastage. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted heavily on the number of tissue donations to PlusLife, but demand for allograft has risen. Our precautionary decision to stop accepting tissue donations during the height of COVID last year meant that our stores of allograft has diminished. At the same time, demand for our products has increased considerably. 

According to the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry, around 50,000 hip replacement operations are conducted in Australia each year. In WA alone, 5852 hip surgeries were performed last year. 

Every one of these hip replacement patients could potentially be a living donor with the ability to improve the lives of others. 

While screening procedures preclude some people from making a donation, we encourage everyone who is about to have hip replacement surgery to speak to their surgeon about donating to PlusLife.

Similarly, we urge doctors and surgeons to raise this as part of pre-surgery discussions to help us drive up tissue donation rates. 

Last year, 672 bone and tissue donations were made to PlusLife. Nationally, there were 3018 tissue donors, including 290 deceased donors who made 442 tissue donations. The majority were femoral head donations from hip replacement operations. 

But latest statistics show just 38% of West Australians are registered tissue and organ donors. 

Since its inception in 1993, PlusLife has provided more than 22,300 grafts that have helped in excess of 12,500 patients. 

One deceased tissue donor is able to improve the wellbeing, sight and mobility of up to 60 people through the donations of bones, tendons, corneas, heart valves and skin. 

As well as encouraging people to speak to their families about their organ and tissue donation wishes in an effort to increase the donor pool, PlusLife is investigating new ways of sourcing donor tissue. 

This includes expanding our operations into Bunbury and Busselton and engaging with interstate hospitals that do not currently have tissue donation programs. 

Over the years, we have been the conduit for thousands of allograft donations, which is life changing for recipients, some who have undergone spinal surgery that enabled them to walk without pain, cancer patients, who with a bone allograft have avoided amputation of a limb; and other inspiring stories like one young Perth girl who was able to resume her passion for dancing thanks to donor graft. 

It is these personal stories that provide critical insight into why we do what we do and why we must strive to promote awareness of tissue donation and drive up tissue donor rates to help meet the growing demand for Australian-produced allograft. 

ED: Annie Cowie is managing director of PlusLife.