QUARTER 4 • 2023
DONATION
In This Issue MTN Updates Celebrating One Year of a World-Class Donor Care and Surgical Recovery Unit......... 1-2 Celebrating Diversity in Donation.........................2 National DMV Appreciation Month......................2 Columbia Donation Symposium.............................3
Funeral Home & Medical Examiner Partners NAME (National Association of Medical Examiners) 57th Annual Meeting..........................3
Hospital Partners The Difference Between Brain Death and DCD................................................................................ 4 DCD Donation Trends and Data............................. 5 It’s That Time of Year Again — Mortality Data................................................................... 5 By the Numbers................................................................ 5 Donation Policies............................................................. 5
Licensing, Treasury and Department of Revenue Partners National DMV Appreciation Month..................... 6 National DMV Appreciation Month Decorating Contest........................................................ 6 T-Shirt Store Opening in November.....................7 Connected to the Cause................................................7
Connection A newsletter for our frontline partners
Celebrating One Year of a World-Class Donor Care and Surgical Recovery Unit
O
ne year ago — Sept. 1, 2022 — Midwest Transplant Network (MTN) opened its new Donor Care and Surgical Recovery Unit (DCU) after years of careful planning, preparation and training on the processes and technology associated with an in-house facility. Since then, with support from many hospital, professional and community partners, we have cared for 131 donor patients from 29 area hospitals in our world-class DCU. These donor heroes provided 415 lifesaving organs to those who desperately waited for a second chance. The DCU features a seven-bed onsite intensive care unit, two state-of-the-art operating rooms, a CT scanner with technology to conference remotely with physicians, a specialty laboratory and a family support lounge for donor heroes’ loved ones to gather if desired. Patients who meet certain clinical criteria may be eligible to move to the DCU, where MTN staff members continue administering high-level critical care until surgical teams begin organ recovery. “We had a vision to create a specialized facility in-house for many years, and seeing it come to fruition has been so powerful,” said Lori Markham, RN, MSN, CCRN-K, CPTC, MTN Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer. “I am incredibly proud of our team for all their hard work, and I am grateful for all our partners that have come together to support this new process that allows for better outcomes.” Since the DCU opened, MTN has enabled more organs per donor to be transplanted than before, with the average number of organs transplanted per donor increasing from 3.1 pre-DCU to 3.35 postDCU opening among the same type of donor characteristics when recovered in donor hospitals. (Continued on page 2)
