Abstract The purposes of this study are to: understand the family’s experience with a child admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) when must decide for an organ donation, identify the meanings that the family attribute to this experience and to construct a theoretical model about the experience of a family with a child in the PICU that must decide for an organ donation. The study used as a theoretical reference the Symbolic Interactionism, and the Grounded theory methodology. […]