Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD) is an increasingly common mechanism through wish patients can donate tissue and organs following death after withdrawal of life sustaining therapies (WLST). Unfortunately many potential DCD donors are not ultimately able to donate and this is a significant emotional and resource burden to families, healthcare workers and hospitals. A tool that allows accurate prediction of time to death following WLST (and thus the probability of successful donation) is urgently needed. Existing models have not been useful due to the lack of generalizability. Additionally, existing models have not included other important factors now recognized to be associated with time to death following WLST. The investigators will conduct a prospective, observational cohort study of all patients being considered for DCD in whom consent for donation is obtained to evaluate the association between neurologic and non-neurologic risk factors for apnea, other clinically important variables and time to death after WLST, and use these data to derive a generalizable predictive model for the prediction of the time to death following WLST in potential DCD donors.
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Death (at 120 minutes)
Timeframe: 120 minutes following withdrawal of life sustaining therapy