Issue 6: 2013
News, Notes and Numbers for Gift of Hope Staff
NewsBriefs Gift of Hope Acquires MTF’s Tissue Recovery Operations We have completed an agreement with Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation to purchase its tissue recovery operations in Illinois. The agreement takes effect January Kevin Cmunt 1 and will give us tissue recovery agreements with 27 more hospitals in our service area along with new relationships with 14 coroners who were previously referring cases to MTF. To handle the increased demands resulting from this service expansion, we will establish a new office in Peoria and will add more than a dozen MTF tissue staff members to our team. Arnitha Lim, Director of Tissue Recovery Services, and Kathy Vasilopulos, Director of Hospital Development, will be working with these new employees to integrate their significant talents into our operations. “I’m 100 percent confident the MTF staff will be a great fit with our team and will add huge value to our hospital development and tissue recovery departments,” said Kevin Cmunt, President/CEO. “These are highly skilled individuals with tons of experience and total dedication to donation in Illinois.” Our new employees will attend the next Team Hope meeting on January 8.
New Organ Donor Record On December 20, we broke our all-time record for most organ donors we have been privileged to work with in a calendar year. We completed case 311 to break the previous record set in 2004. “Congratulations go out to all of you,” said Kevin Cmunt, President/CEO. “Every single one of you had a hand in making this happen. Along with our record-setting year for tissue donors — we will be close to 1,500 this year — we will have helped more families offer the gift of donation than ever before.”
DonationStats * National Organ Waiting List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120,971 Illinois Organ Waiting List.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,328 Indiana Organ Waiting List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,492 Illinois Organ Waiting List By Organ: • Kidney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,594 • Liver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 • Heart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 • Kidney/Pancreas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 • Pancreas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 • Lung. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 • Intestine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 *As of 12/15/13
SafetySnippet Be Aware of Black Ice During winter, black ice is one driving hazard to be mindful of when behind the wheel. Black ice — which can be almost invisible — forms when the air temperature is warmer than the pavement. This causes moisture to rapidly freeze and create a thin, transparent layer of ice on the roadway. To help avoid black ice-related incidents, follow these tips: • Use caution on bridges, overpasses and tunnels and in early mornings when air temperature rises faster than pavement temperature. • Never brake while driving on ice; you’ll skid if you do. Brake only when you see ice ahead. • Keep a minimum three-car distance behind the vehicle in front of you. You need double the distance to stop on black ice. • Salting and sanding can neutralize black ice. But salt loses its effectiveness at about 15° F.
Saving & Enhancing Lives Through Organ and Tissue Donation