C

Cadaveric Donor: Also called non-living or deceased donors (preferred term), are those who donate their organs or tissue after they have died.

Candidate: A patient who has been placed on the national waiting list for solid organ transplantation.

Center of Excellence: An insurance term for a medical center that will negotiate a discounted price for the transplant even if that center is not part of the insurance company’s PPO network.

Cirrhosis: A disease of the liver in which normal, healthy tissue is replaced with nonfunctioning tissue, and healthy, functioning liver cells are lost. Cirrhosis usually occurs when there is a lack

of adequate nutrition, infection is present or damage has been caused by alcohol abuse.

Circulatory Death: Occurs when a person's heart stops and cannot be resuscitated. Just like brain death, there is no recovery from circulatory death (also known as cardiac death).

Co-insurance: A percentage of money you must pay toward a service your insurance will cover. A typical amount is 20 percent—you pay 20 percent of the doctor’s bill and your insurance

company pays the other 80 percent.

Co-payment (co-pay) - A flat fee that a person pays for healthcare services in addition to what the insurance company pays, for example, a $10 “co-payment” each time you visit your doctor.

Corticosteroid: A hormone produced by the body but given as a synthetic (manufactured) medicine to suppress your body’s normal reaction (immune response) to infection and foreign

tissue, such as a transplanted organ. Prednisone is an example of a synthetic hormone.

Coverage date: The day your insurance benefits begin.

Covered benefit: A service that an insurance company will provide payment toward.

Covered service: See covered benefit.

Cold Ischemia Time: The time an organ is without blood circulation and is kept cold—from the time the organ is removed from the donor to the time it is transplanted into the recipient. In surgery, the time between the chilling of a tissue, organ, or body part after its blood supply has been reduced or cut off and the time it is warmed by having its blood supply restored. This can occur while the organ is still in the body or after it is removed from the body if the organ is to be used for transplantation. This time is very important for intestinal transplantation and can be a determinant of how well the intestine will function post-transplant.

Cornea: The transparent outer covering of the eye's iris and pupil. Corneas can be donated and transplanted to restore sight for people with damaged corneas.

Cross-Matching: A blood test performed before a transplant to find out if the specific donor organ to be transplanted is likely to be rejected by the prospective recipient. If the test is positive, the donor and recipient are "incompatible" and the transplant is unlikely to be performed with an organ from that donor.