Donation after death

The results of this examination are communicated to the referring physician. Your family can make an appointment with this doctor to know the results of the examination and the definite diagnosis.

In addition, your carefully stored body material and data are very valuable for future scientific research into the causes of these diseases. In the past, the combination of genetic, neuropathological and neurochemical research has led to important breakthroughs. It is highly likely that increasing knowledge about the mechanisms causing these conditions will eventually lead to new and effective therapies.

Finally, you or your family member/legal representative have the right to inquire about the study at any time, via your treating physician.

• Your treating physician will explain to you or your legal representative the possibility of obtaining a definite diagnosis.
  
• Your treating physician will inform you or your legal representative (partner, child) of the possibility of participating in future scientific research by having your body material/data stored in the IBB-NeuroBiobank BB190113.
• If you or your legal representative (partner, child) are able to consent to this, a copy of this signed Informed Consent Form will be handed to you or your legal representative.
• Your treating physician will send the original signed document to neurobiobank@uantwerpen.be and will also provide a copy of your neurological clinical file. Both documents will be safely stored in the IBB-NeuroBiobank database with respect for your privacy.
• Upon your death, the treating physician or a nurse or a family member should contact the IBB-NeuroBiobank as soon as possible by calling the central telephone number (+32 3/265 2688) to schedule an autopsy.
• Your family can ask the undertaker they have appointed to transport your body. A funerary transport service provider appointed by us can also be used to have your body transported to the mortuary and back to your undertaker. Your body will be taken to the agreed mortuary at the agreed time.
• The autopsy takes up to 100 minutes, after which the undertaker or funerary transport service provider will transport your body to a mortuary chosen by your family. This procedure results in little or no visible scarring, except in case of baldness.
• With the exception of services provided to external services, costs related to this transport and the autopsy shall be borne by the Institute Born-Bunge. As a scientific institution, the IBB asks the transporter to apply the official rate for the transport of bodies as for judicial research, cf. Belgian Official Gazette 31/01/2020, 5631, circular letter 131/7.
• Your body material will be taken to the Born-Bunge Institute, where it will be prepared for preservation and stored in the IBB-NeuroBiobank BB190113 and linked to your previously obtained data. From this moment on, your body material/data will be referred to with a code.
•  A routine neuropathological diagnostic examination is then carried out.
• Your treating physician will receive a report of this within a few days to three months (depending on the examination). This almost always leads to a definite diagnosis. Your family has the option of contacting your treating physician about this to obtain further clarification.
• Your body material may be used at a later date for the benefit of scientific research into neurodegenerative or neuromuscular diseases. For this purpose, a researcher must submit a request to the IBB-NeuroBiobank which stores your body material/data. Each new study is first submitted to a Medical Ethics Committee for approval.