Funeral Homes

Who We Are

United Tissue Resources was established in 1986, as the Tissue Center of Central Texas, in answer to a call from area surgeons, for a consistent and reliable source of allograft tissue. Where before, grafts needed to save and enhance the lives of Central Texans had to be brought in from outside our region, our center now would provide this service, with the help of area donor heroes. As our mission expanded beyond just Central Texas, our name changed to better reflect the expansion of our services.

UTR is regulated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Our national accreditation agency is the American Association of Tissue Banks, and we operate in accordance with the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), State of Texas Health & Safety Code 693, and Chapter 49 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Title 1) concerning inquests on dead bodies.

What We Do

More than 45% of Texans have registered their intent to become organ, eye, and tissue donors, on the Donate Life Texas Registry. Those who will later be considered for the surgical recovery of organs and tissue, may be referred for donation from hospitals, or after death outside of the hospital setting. In almost all cases, funeral professionals will be called upon to provide their expertise and donation professionals must work with them, to provide the community services that each offers.

As we work to honor the donation decisions of our fellow Texans, UTR also works to ensure safe and quality tissue grafts to hospitals and surgery centers throughout Central and South Texas. This process begins from the time that we receive notice of death from our hospital and community partners.

These partners might include but are not limited to hospitals, medical examiners offices, justices of the peace and hospice organizations.

What Can be Donated

Along with the eight major organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, small intestine, pancreas) that may be surgically recovered by organ donation agencies, one cornea from each eye and the sclera may also be surgically recovered, to restore vision. United Tissue Resources now performs corneal recovery, in addition to fulfilling our original mission of facilitating allograft tissue donation.

Allograft tissue donation is the surgical recovery and distribution of bone, skin, veins, ligaments and tendons, peripheral nerves, heart valves and dermal tissue. One “complete” organ, eye and tissue donor might save or heal 75 or more people.

Nearly two million surgical procedures using donated tissue are performed each year in the United States. These procedures include spinal fusions, joint revisions, burn and trauma treatments, wound care, and many others. 

Hospital Deaths and the Funeral Professional

Whether notification of death comes from hospitals or community partners such as justices of the peace, the Consent team at UTR must gather information that will be used in determining potential for the surgical recovery of tissue. This process often includes obtaining consent for surgical recovery from the legal next-of-kin, when the deceased has not registered their intent to donate before their death, on the Donate Life Texas Registry. When consent is given, care is taken to ensure the safety of recipients and members of the UTR Surgical Recovery team, by screening each potential donor for a range of potential pathogens. This screening is done over the phone, and time must be taken to contact family members of the deceased, specifically the legal next-of-kin.

Often, family members of the deceased are not immediately available and making contact can be challenging. Even when contact is made, the process of consenting or authorizing donation demands that a comprehensive list of questions be asked and answered. UTR also prides itself on addressing all end-of-life needs that a donor family might have, and the time needed to do so is impossible to determine beforehand. We ask for your patience and cooperation, as we attempt to make contact and address the needs of our donor families.

Surgical Recovery

Once consent has been obtained, the UTR Surgical Recovery team prepares to perform the surgical recovery of tissue. If possible, the surgical recovery of tissue can occur in a hospital operating suite, following organ recovery. However, most tissue recoveries do not also involve organ recovery. In these cases, transport of the donor to a suitable recovery site is necessary.

UTR reserves recovery sites in several locations throughout our service area, but all require that the body of the donor be transported to these sites. This and other arrangements will be discussed with funeral professionals on each case. These arrangements will vary from case to case, and we ask for your patience and cooperation while these arrangements are made. This might involve working with you, to request access to your facility, when moving a donor to and from an approved recovery site, before and after surgical recovery.

The process of surgical recovery proceeds along a timeline that roughly follows the following steps:

1. UTR Surgical Recovery team leaders receives information from the UTR Consent team.
2. UTR Surgical Recovery team is called in to UTR headquarters and completes the following.
   1. Review of available donor information/paperwork 
   2. Confirmation of critical time elements (i.e., time of death, asystole or last time seen alive, whichever is earlier); body cooling/refrigeration requirements; ability to recover tissue
3. Arrangements are made for the transport of the donor to and from a recovery site (as needed).
4. Recovery of tissue proceeds as planned.
5. Surgical Reconstruction of body is performed.
6. The body is transported to the funeral home or medical examiner, as requested.
7. Recovered tissue is shipped tissue to processing facilities to be prepared for transplant.

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The timeline of events listed above is influenced by several factors outside of the control of the UTR Surgical Recovery team. These include:

1. Critical time limits
   1. Recovery must take place within 24 hours of time of death. Cooling times and tissues to be recovered also influence potential for recovery.
2. Acceptable medical/social history
   1. Deferrals may result due to age, medical history, travel, high-risk behavior, and other factors.
3. Non-hemodiluted blood sample must be available for testing.
   1. Recovery technicians must be able to draw blood for serological testing, back-up, and archive.
4. No funeral preparation may be performed prior to recovery.
   1. Recovery teams must defer the donor for surgical recovery if any preparation is performed before recovery.
      1. This includes embalming or application of any drying agent.
5. What about Inquests? 
   1. Surgical recovery is performed only after permission to proceed has been received from the judge ordering the inquest. The medical examiner or pathologist involved will also be consulted, so that recovery in no way interferes with an on-going investigation.

UTR prides itself on consistent and effective communication. You should expect to be kept informed at each step of the surgical recovery timeline, so that you can establish your own timeline, for the performance of your duties to the families in your care.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction is collaborative process between UTR’s Surgical Recovery team, funeral professionals, and donor families. This process is meant to provide donor families with the final memory of their loved one that they desire.  To accomplish this, the UTR Surgical Recovery team remains in contact with donor families, funeral professionals, and medical examiners, so that the recovery of tissue does not interfere with the work of funeral professionals, in preparing the body for viewing. This is in keeping with the promise of donation organizations, that donation will not prevent donor families from staging an open-casket funeral ceremony.