FROM THE PRESIDENT

With spring comes renewed life. Renewed life is precisely why the health care institutions of the Texas Medical Center exist. It’s also the charge for LifeGift and its partnering trauma and transplant centers – to save the lives of transplant recipients in need of an available organ or tissue.

In recognition of the importance of organ donations, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has declared this month as National Donate Life Month.

It is with recipients in mind and the donor families that make renewed life possible that LifeGift and its partners are invigorated by a number of new programs to address the critical shortage of organs and tissue that currently exists in this country.

The implementation of these new programs follows a record-setting year for performance. Because of the dedication of LifeGift staff members and the commitment of physicians and hospital partners, LifeGift recovered a record 774 organs from 206 organ donors during its Fiscal Year 2002 (Oct. 1, 2001 through Sept. 30, 2002). Tissue recovery teams recovered more than 1,600 donations of skin, bone, veins, and heart valves, which ultimately became 10,000 tissue grafts.

This year marks the implementation of LifeGift’s new CORE strategy, which focuses recovery efforts in LifeGift’s historically most productive hospitals and follows a model initiated in 1996 at Ben Taub General Hospital and Memorial Hermann Hospital. On-site LifeGift donation specialists are placed and housed at 11 Houston-area hospitals to more closely work with and cultivate relationships with hospital staff members and provide enhanced services to donor families. The program has been extremely successful at Memorial Hermann Hospital which, for the second time in three years, recently was recognized as the nation’s top donor hospital.

At the same time, education is a crucial component of the LifeGift mission, this year manifesting itself in the Workplace Partnership for Life, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services. LifeGift has embraced the effort, which aims to educate the workforce of corporations and organizations nationwide about organ and tissue donation, and is working to recruit companies and organizations as partners.

LifeGift’s mantra is simple: decide to donate your organs and tissue and share the decision with your family. If you want more information about the Workplace Partnership, donation or a free donor card, call LifeGift at 1-800-633-6562 or visit http://www.lifegift.org.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/04_15_03/page_31.html