Gift of Life Michigan honors organ donation champions for life-saving work

Gift of Life presented four people with its prestigious Community Service and Professional Service awards at the 39^thannual Gift of Life Foundation meeting in Novi on Thursday, Nov. 18. Gift of Life, Michigan’s only full-service organ recovery organization, is an intermediary between donors and hospitals when a donation occurs. It also works with the Secretary of State to manage the state’s Organ Donor Registry. The Gift of Life Foundation, a separate organization, supports Gift of Life’s mission. It provides financial help for transplant recipients in need, gives research grants and helps pay for programs that promote organ and tissue donation. These award recipients are dedicated to helping save and improve lives through their outstanding work and advocacy in organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation.

Professional Service Award:

• Don Johnson, Clinical Ethics Center nurse, Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center, Dearborn. Don was recognized for being a compassionate advocate for families, providing clear information to help them understand the gravity of their loved-one’s medical situation and their options. Don is available to both the hospital and Gift of Life to answer questions and offer clarity about policies and procedures. An example: A year ago, the parents of a newborn with a severe neurological injury looked beyond their own unspeakable pain and requested organ donation for their baby. Don helped both the family and the staff work through the process and thanks in part to his efforts, the lives of a two-month and a five-month old were saved.

Community Service Awards:

• Kathy Hansen, pancreas recipient and Gift of Life volunteer, St. Clair Shores. Hansen set a goal to add one new name to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry for every person waiting to receive a life-saving organ transplant – then she did just that. Hansen singlehandedly signed up more than 3,000 Michigan residents in hopes of saving more lives. She began doing local events in Macomb County and sharing her story at churches, schools and hospitals. Hansen visited several Secretary of State branch offices this year, promoting organ and tissue donation in hopes of convincing patrons to join the registry at the counter. She knows first hand what new donors mean for those on the waiting list. When people ask Kathy how she feels after her transplant, she tells them that, for the first time in decades, she feels normal. Before her transplant, she didn’t know what normal felt like.

• Anne Murphy, Transplant Center Administrator, University of Michigan Health System. Murphy is driven to save lives through her work at the U of M Transplant Center and through her public efforts to help grow the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Among other efforts, Murphy pushed for a hospital-based registration campaign and that led to Michigan Donor Drive in 2008 and 5,000 new registrations from Michigan hospitals. For Anne, that project also served a personal mission to honor the lives of UM colleagues who died in a plane crash while returning from the recovery of organs in Wisconsin. This year, Anne pulled together various organizations to create the “Wolverines for Life” group, which includes Gift of Life Michigan, the Michigan Eye-Bank, the Red Cross, Be the Match Donor Program and the U-M Athletic Department. The goal: Zero tolerance for blood shortages, zero tolerance for not enough marrow donors and zero tolerance for deaths on the transplant waiting list.

• Kerry Hutchins, Sparta mom, posthumously. Hutchins, who died waiting for a lung transplant in August, was recognized for her extraordinary life, and dedication to promoting organ and tissue donation. At 33, cystic fibrosis had reduced Kerry’s lungs to virtually nothing and left her unable to breathe without the help of machines. After nearly three years on the waiting list for a transplant, the wife and mother of two boys was admitted to the University of Michigan Medical Center in April and placed on a respirator. She knew she would leave the Ann Arbor hospital either with new lungs and a new shot at life, or she would die there. Kerry had no way of knowing which way it would turn out. But she did know she had a story to tell, a message to share and a plea to make. And she couldn’t wait to talk about it. As she waited in the hospital, Kerry produced a video and shared her story with the media, helping spread the urgent message statewide that real people are waiting every day for life-saving organs. After the Grand Rapids Press told Kerry’s story in August, donor registrations doubled in Kent County and the numbers continued to rise as the newspaper – and then television and other media – told residents she was too sick to endure a transplant. Kerry lost her fight, but she inspired us all and gave new hope to those waiting for a transplant.

Since 2007, residents no longer sign the back of their Michigan driver’s license to indicate their wish to be an organ and tissue donor. Instead, they join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. After doing that, a red heart sticker from the Michigan Secretary of State goes on their driver’s license or state I.D., officially designating them as a donor.

More than 200,000 people have joined Donor Registry so far in 2009. Of the state’s 10 million residents, more than 2 million are registered donors.

To sign up, go to www.giftoflifemichigan.org or ask at any Secretary of State branch office to place your name on the state database. For more information or to join the Donor Registry by phone, call 1.800.482.4881.