text:  What happened? Why couldn't she be a donor? She had enough cardiac function to be able to withstand the withdrawal of the life support. So she was able to breathe some on her own, and blood pressure was good enough for long enough to where we exhausted the time limit that she could be a donor. This happens about one-third of the time. For us it's disappointing, but for the donor family, and particularly the recipients who were expecting to get a life-saving organ, it's more devastating, I think, for them.