An H1N1 pandemic could compromise organ donations as medical resources shift to deal with the swine flu, an expert says.

"Donors may not end up in hospitals if critical care beds in the ICU are filled with H1N1 patients and resources are shifted to look after those patients," said Dr. Jeff Zaltzman, chief medical officer at the Trillium Gift of Life Network.

"In the worst-case scenario, ICUs would be full and there would be no room to look after patients with other issues," he said. "During SARS, there were more lives lost to patients not getting medical care than from SARS."

Another problem that may arise is that health-care workers may be too busy to approach families of potential donors to ask them to consider donation if they're overwhelmed with patients sick with the swine flu.

"If there is no major re-allocation of resources, donor patients could still be managed," Zaltzman said.

Patients who die of swine flu aren't viable organ donors.

The organs would be refused for donation because, with swine flu, the lungs would be damaged or collapsed and the heart would be enlarged and not suitable for donation.

"If someone had H1N1, their organs wouldn't be used for fear of transmission," Zaltzman said.