Be a Donor | Bermuda Hospitals Board

Bermuda’s hospitals serve every member of our community. If you are able, please consider giving blood or a financial donation to help others in their time of crisis.

Blood Donation

Bermuda Blood Donor Centre

1st Floor, General Wing, KEMH

8:30am to 2:30pm Monday to Thursday
8:30am to 1pm Friday

Tel: (441) 236-5067 Email: blood.donor@bhb.bm

Bermuda may be a small island, but our need for life-saving donations of blood is great. The hospital uses more than 2,000 units of blood each year.

When a patient needs a transfusion, the need is usually immediate. Therefore the hospital must have a ready supply of all blood types. When you consider that blood has a shelf life of five days or less for platelets, 42 days for red blood cells and a year for plasma, you can understand why the need for donors is constant.

What does it take to be a blood donor? Donating blood is a simple, painless way to give back to your community. It takes about half an hour of your time. But the satisfaction of knowing that you have made a vital difference in the life of a cancer or heart disease patient, or an accident or burn victim, can last a lifetime.

Organ Donation

Organ Donation

Organ donation by one individual can save and improve numerous lives.

  • Heart, heart/lung, lung and liver transplants save lives after all other treatment options have been exhausted.
  • A kidney transplant can save a life and free the recipient from dialysis treatments.
  • A pancreas transplant can free a diabetic from daily insulin injections.
  • Cornea transplants can restore vision.
  • Donated skin can provide burn victims with temporary protection from pain and infection.
  • Bone transplants can be used to help save limbs threatened by cancer.

BHB works in partnership with the New England Organ Bank (NEOB), the oldest independent organ procurement organisation in the US. NEOB collaborates with BHB staff to clarify organ and tissue donation policies and to ensure that potential donors are consistently recognised and referred.

Donor cards are available at doctors’ offices, post offices and at TCD.

For more information, contact The Bermuda Organ and Tissue Donor Association at (441) 236-1275.

Some facts about organ donation

Signing up to be a donor will not affect your medical care

Your commitment to donation will not interfere with your medical care. Donation is only an option after all life-saving efforts have been made and death has been declared.

Organs are not for sale

It is illegal to buy or sell human organs and tissue for transplant. To ensure that organs are given to the neediest recipients, strict guidelines are enforced that regulate the organ distribution process.

Who can be a donor?

People of all ages may be eligible to donate organs and tissues. Your medical condition at the time of death will determine what organs and tissues can be donated.

Donation costs nothing

There is no cost to the donor or donor’s family for donation.

Links:

Financial Donations

Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Foundation

The Bermuda Hospitals Charitable Foundation (BHCF) is a non-profit organisation created specifically to support BHB. Operating as an independent but accountable organisation, BHCF serves to formalise the hospitals’ charitable relations and solicit the support of Bermuda’s donor community. BHCF advises and fundraises for BHB, while managing the distribution of donations to areas of need.

Visit the BHCF website.