Providing Your Medical Records

The scientific value of your temporal bone donation is greatly enhanced if it is accompanied by up-to-date medical records.  Therefore, we encourage donors to send records of all hearing tests, balance tests, and ear surgery to the Registry.  Results of hearing tests (audiograms) that you may have had are extremely valuable.  Researchers need your medical records so that they can correlate and link your ear disorders to the changes they observe in your donated temporal bones.

To ensure that your wish to donate your temporal bones is carried out, the Registry maintains a 24-hour-a-day nationwide network to remove donated tissues. Upon a donor's death, the next of kin or health care provider notifies the Registry with a call to our toll-free hotline, (800) 822-1327, 24 hours a day.

The Registry Coordinator then makes all the arrangements for temporal bone removal. No cost is incurred by the donor's family or estate. The medical professionals who remove the temporal bones donate their time or are paid by the laboratory receiving the temporal bones. Removal of temporal bones (and brain stem) does not change the appearance of the head, face, or outer ear.