Understanding Organ Donation After Circulatory Death and the Role of the Respiratory Therapist

Thomas Nakagawa
MD, FAAP, FCCM

Thomas A. Nakagawa, M.D., FAAP, FCCM, is a board-certified pediatric critical care specialist. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at The University of Florida College of Medicine and the Medical Director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Nakagawa continues to serve as the Assistant Medical Director for Honorbridge Organ Donation Services in Durham, North Carolina. His previous academic and clinical appointments include Eastern Virginia Medical School, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. He was a Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Wake Forest and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital where he also served as the Division Chief, Medical Director for Pediatric Critical Care, and Medical Director for Respiratory Care.

Dr. Nakagawa is a national and international consultant for issues pertaining to pediatric organ and tissue donation and the determination of circulatory and neurologic death. He is actively involved with work in the area of organ and tissue donation, neurologic and circulatory determination of death, and ethical issues pertaining to end-of-life care. Dr. Nakagawa has served on national committees including the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation (ACOT), the UNOS/OPTN Pediatric Transplant committee, and co-chair for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance donor management task force committee. He was national faculty and co-chair for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Collaboratives sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), and co-chaired three National Pediatric Organ Donations Summits in the US. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Organ Donation and Transplantation Alliance as the representative and liaison for the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Nakagawa has authored more than 100 papers, book chapters, and editorials. He has published pediatric donor management and dosing guidelines utilized by organ procurement organizations nationally. Dr. Nakagawa is the lead author of the updated guidelines for the determination of brain death in infants and children from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Child Neurology Society (CNS). He has been a consultant to the American Academy of Pediatrics for the revision of the pediatric organ donation and transplantation policy statement. His international work includes involvement with the expert panel for the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation, the Geneva Conference on Pediatric Donation, and the Canadian Pediatric Donation after Circulatory Death guideline. 

Dr. Nakagawa is actively involved with the Society of Critical Care Medicine where he has held leadership positions including the Chair of the Pediatric Section Executive Steering Committee. He currently serves as the Pediatric Representative on the SCCM Council. Dr. Nakagawa is a well-renowned national and international speaker and has lectured in 17 countries. He has been recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership and involvement with ethical issues, end-of-life care, donation and transplantation, determination of death, and his work in the field of pediatric medicine.