The 13,000-square-foot Center for Life includes three intensive-care beds for ventilated donors who have been declared brain dead, two operating rooms for organ recovery, a tissue recovery room, a research lab and a room with perfusion pumps that preserve organs before they are transplanted.

The Center also has a private lounge for families whose loved ones are donating their organs. Renovations of that area of the hospital, which was previously dedicated to pediatric heart surgeries, and the purchase of new equipment cost more than $3.5 million. Funding was provided by Bexar County and a grant from the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation. Jennifer Milton, chief administrative officer at University Transplant Center, said having the dedicated space is projected to increase the number of organs recovered because transplant teams will no longer be under constraints for ICU and operating room space at local hospitals where the donor died. Specialized staff and standardized equipment will also be centralized in one place. As a result, the Center for Life can act as a hub for organ recovery and, in cases where the body of the donor is stable enough, will accept transfers from other hospitals for the organ recovery process.

The center was created as a partnership among University Transplant Center and the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, the nonprofit that is federally designated to facilitate deceased organ transplants in South and Central Texas, as well as the San Antonio Eye Bank and GenCure, which recovers skin, bone and tissues.