Sculpture Commemorates Organ Donation Efforts

In recognition of Memorial Hermann Hospital’s organ donation and transplantation efforts, LifeGift Organ Donation Center honored the hospital with a donor memorial sculpture titled “The Gift.”

The sculpture recognizes the commitment by the hospital and its donor families in saving the lives of hundreds of transplant patients in Houston and beyond every year. Collaborating with LifeGift, the hospital has recovered organs from more donors than any other institution in the country during two of the last three years.

“Memorial Hermann is committed to saving lives and providing LifeGift the support needed to connect organ donors with patients waiting for transplants,” said Juanita Romans, Memorial Hermann senior vice president and CEO. “We salute our donor families with this gift.”

Commissioned by LifeGift and designed by local sculptor Richard Fielden, the 10-foot steel sculpture symbolizes the passing on of life. Two figures making up the sculpture represent the spirits of donors rising to support the lives of others. A stained glass heart in the center of the figures represents the gift of life and an ascending dove symbolizes the renewal of life.

“Richard Fielden truly captured the essence of donation – the end of one life and symbolic re-beginning of other lives,” said Sam Holtzman, LifeGift’s president and chief executive officer. “The piece not only salutes Memorial Hermann’s efforts but recognizes the heroism of donor families.”

Fielden has designed other Houston landmarks including the bronze baseball sculpture outside Houston’s Minute Maid Park, the gold-leafed bird outside La Colombe d’Or restaurant, Big Foot Wallace’s Cactus Boots on Post Oak, and The Tree of Life at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Figures released by the United Network for Organ Sharing show that Memorial Hermann, in collaboration with LifeGift, recovered 233 organs from 64 donors last year – more than any other U.S. hospital. LifeGift is the agency that works with hospitals to recover organs and tissue in 109 counties in southeast, north and west Texas.

Holtzman attributes Memorial Hermann’s and LifeGift’s success to a strong partnership between the two institutions.

“With more than 85,000 individuals on the transplant waiting list nationwide – 1,600 in southeast Texas alone – the need is clear,” Holtzman remarked. “Memorial Hermann Hospital has attained a level of achievement unparalleled by any other institution.”

In 1995, Memorial Hermann became one of two hospitals in the country to pilot LifeGift’s In-House Coordinator Program. The program places LifeGift

donation specialists inside the hospital to work side-by-side with hospital staff to maximize donor opportunities. The program has been so effective that it has been replicated in Level-I trauma centers across the country.

“There is no doubt Memorial Hermann has helped save and enhance hundreds of lives due to the program. The hospital became the nation’s top donor hospital in 2000 and routinely surpasses the performance of most other Level I trauma centers in the country,” Holtzman said.

“Family members want to know they’re doing the right thing. We work with them to help them understand brain death,” says Janine Mazabob, director of Memorial Hermann Hospital’s Neuro Critical Care Unit. “At the same time, we let them know we are here to support them and respect their decision – whatever it is. My own experience has been that when they see how their loved ones have helped so many survive, they’re comforted.”

“Thanks to our strong collaborative efforts last year, our organ donation program helped 134 transplant patients at Memorial Hermann Hospital, alone,” Romans added.

One organ and tissue donor can give the gift of life to 50 people. LifeGift encourages individuals to make the decision to become an organ and tissue donor and share the decision with family members. The latter is crucial as family must consent to donate.

For more information about organ and tissue donation and free donor cards, contact LifeGift at 1-800-633-6562 or visit http://www.lifegift.org.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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