Buying time for organ recovery (3/4ページ)

About half of the 12,000 people nationally who are eligible to donate organs after brain death become organ donors. But a much larger pool of potential donors who die from cardiac arrest outside the hospital - an estimated 22,000 people a year - don't get considered for organ donation.

One reason is that once crews declare a death in the field, they avoid unnecessary medical costs and reduce risks by eliminating the lights-and-siren run to the hospital.

But some doctors and families are expected to dislike the idea of performing procedures without consent.