DONATION Connection
2025 Donate Life Legacy Walk
idwest Transplant Network welcomed more than 1,800 participants to the ninth annual Donate Life Legacy Walk on June 7. The celebration honored donor hero families, transplant recipients and community partners, and was filled with live music, food and memories.
The Tribute Trail invited moments of reflection and recognition for those who have been impacted by organ, eye and tissue donation.
We enjoyed seeing many of you at the walk and hope to see you next year at the Legacy Walk.
Excellence in Donation Awards
In April, Midwest Transplant Network recognized partners in saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation by presenting the annual Excellence in Donation Awards to hospitals, individuals and organizations in our communities.
Based on donation outcomes from the previous year, MTN presents awards for excellence in organ and tissue donation to hospitals with a higher-than-average number of families granting authorization for donation. MTN also gives awards to exceptional partners in hospitals, licensing, treasury and Department of Revenue offices, medical examiner offices, funeral homes and to individuals or groups who make an extraordinary contribution to MTN’s lifesaving mission.
MTN commissioned special artwork from local Kansas City artist, Jenny Meyer-McCall, to create awards representing Gretchen’s Garden for Heroes at MTN. The garden is a place of quiet reflection and hope, named in honor of Gretchen Gosch, a beloved MTN staff member who gave the ultimate gift of life. The awards honor Gretchen and all the donor heroes the garden helps us remember.
Midwest Transplant Network recognized the following:
Organ and tissue excellence:
AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, Centerpoint Medical Center, Overland Park Regional Medical Center, Stormont Vail Health, Salina Regional Health Center, Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, Lee’s Summit Medical Center, CommonSpirit St. Catherine Hospital-Garden City, Mercy Hospital Pittsburg, Inc. and Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
Organ excellence:
Mosaic Life Care and Select Specialty Hospital-Kansas City.
Tissue excellence:
Saint Luke’s Hospital, Providence Medical Center, The University of Kansas Health System, Mercy Hospital Joplin, Freeman Health System, Menorah Medical Center, Saint Luke’s East Hospital, Capital Region Medical Center, Olathe Medical Center, Ascension Via Christi Hospital Manhattan, William Newton Hospital and Johnson County Medical Examiner.
Individual and group honorees:
Kim Harbur, Director of Education, Gift of Life Kansas City; Kelsey Gebauer, MSN, MBA, RN, CCRN, Nurse Manager, Surgical/Trauma ICU at The University of Kansas Health System; HCA Midwest Critical Care Educators Ashley Bearkheimer, MSN, RN, CCRN, Centerpoint Medical Center; April Rock, BSN, RN, Overland Park Regional Medical Center; Sarah Fike, BSN, RN, NPD-BC, CCRN, Research Medical Center and Katrina Sanders, BSN, RN, HCA MidAmerica Division; Gary Dixon, Midwest Transplant Network volunteer Ambassador; Janelle Williamson, MS, APRN, NP-C, ACHPN, FPCN, Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, Stormont Vail Health; Arielle Steinle, EMP-T, Paramedic, Butler County EMS and Captain Kathleen (Katie) Yarsulik, Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department.
National Multiethnic Donor Awareness Month
August is National Multiethnic Donor Awareness Month, a time to save and improve the quality of life of diverse communities by creating a positive culture for organ, eye and tissue donation.
The need for donation is strong among Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native Americans. To date, 60% of people on the national transplant waitlist represent diverse racial and ethnic communities — and more than 40% of organ transplant recipients are people of color.
Across the U.S., the majority of individuals waiting for a kidney (the most commonly transplanted organ) are people of color. This group represents 64% of the waitlist.
With your help, we look forward to enhancing awareness of organ, eye and tissue donation in diverse communities in August and throughout the year.
Did You Know?
As a healthcare professional, you know there’s always something new to learn, or facts to be reminded about. Midwest Transplant Network would like to share a few facts as you continue to support organ, eye and tissue donation for patients and their families.
• Approximately 95% of U.S. adults are in favor of being an organ donor, but only 60% are registered.
• Nearly 2,000 people in Missouri and 500 people in Kansas are waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. More than 2,000 need kidney transplants.
• Nationally, more than 104,000 men, women and children are on the transplant waiting list.
• On average, 17 people die each day because of a lack of available organs for transplants. And every 8 minutes, another person is added to the waiting list.
• One organ donor can save up to eight lives and improve the lives of up to 100 more people through eye and tissue donation.
• Everyone can be a registered organ donor, regardless of race, age or medical history.
• To join the registry in Kansas and Missouri, go to ShareLifeMidwest.com . Your hospital can make a difference in enhancing awareness of organ, eye and tissue donation by inviting Midwest Transplant Network to speak with hospital staff or share an information table at a community event. Please talk to your MTN Hospital Services Coordinator for details.
Hospital Partner Education
About This Newsletter
This insert is intended for clinical staff and not for the general public. Please post in a highly visible clinical area such as a break room.
Tissue Referral Criteria
Midwest Transplant Network is proud to support and partner with our tissue and eye partners to provide lifesaving and lifeenhancing gifts as we honor our tissue and eye donor heroes.
Thank you for calling MTN within 60 minutes of asystole for all deaths. Tissue criteria may change quickly; therefore, it is important to call on all circulatory deaths regardless of:
• Age
• Comorbidities (i.e., COVID, cancer, sepsis, etc.)
• Cause of death
• Coroner/medical examiner or police involvement
• Previous imminent referral
Contact Us
For more information or questions, call 913-262-1668, email info@mwtn.org or visit mwtn.org
Your timely communication preserves donation options for patients, families and those awaiting a lifesaving or life-enhancing gift.
Julie Filbeck Shares Her Story
When Julie cared for her first donor hero years ago in the ICU, she never imagined that a donor could save her life, too. That all changed when a stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis came into her life in 2018.
“I went through eight rounds of chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation and more surgeries,” she said. “Through every surgery, what helped me heal was tissue from somebody willing to give that ultimate gift.”
The gift of tissue allowed Julie to return to her work as a nurse while caring for her three young children. Her position as a nurse gives her the opportunity to honor her donor by continuing to advocate for donations.
“No matter what type of recipient you are, you can honor your donor by having conversations with family, friends and others so that they understand the importance of being a donor,” she said.
The Impact of Unplanned Mentions of Donation
As the designated requestor for all hospitals within our donor service area, it is key that Midwest Transplant Network is the one to speak with potential organ, eye and tissue donor families about donation. While there may be times when a physician establishes a plan with MTN staff to collaboratively approach a family about organ donation, any donation conversation initiated by a member of the hospital team without an established and agreed upon plan with MTN is considered an “unplanned mention of donation” or UMD. This includes any mention of Midwest Transplant Network, the organ or tissue donation team, etc.
Because the opportunity for organ, eye and tissue donation is a part of end-of-life considerations for patients, it is especially important to be sensitive about how and when this is presented to the family. Unplanned mentions of donation by members of the hospital staff, while well meaning, have the potential to leave doubts in the family’s mind that all lifesaving efforts for their loved one were exhausted. It may be difficult for a family to reconcile that the hospital team can be both interested in their loved one’s recovery while at the same time advocating for the opportunity for donation. MTN follows an effective request process and works with hospital nursing and medical staff to ensure the timing of donation conversations is handled with respect and compassion for potential donor families during an acute phase of grief. It is important that in the case of organ donation the patient has either been declared deceased by neurologic criteria/brain dead, or the family is accepting of their loved one’s terminal prognosis and they are ready for end-of-life conversations and may benefit from having the ability to fold donation into their plans.
For all organ, eye and tissue donations, it is important that the family is ready to discuss next steps and that MTN has deemed the patient is eligible to be a donor prior to the donation conversation. Even when received positively, unplanned mentions of donation by hospital staff may not be able to provide the family with the most accurate representation of their loved one’s eligibility to be a donor. Medical and scientific advancements in the field mean that patient eligibility can change frequently, and as the organ procurement organization for Kansas and the western two-thirds of Missouri, MTN is able to ensure families receive the most current and accurate information about their loved one’s opportunity to donate.
MTN Family Service Coordinators are trained in grief support and crisis intervention and are committed to ensuring that we partner with the hospital team to provide the very best care possible to families during this difficult time. Hospital staff can continue to support families by ensuring that they never initiate a donation conversation and always huddle with MTN staff to form a collaborative plan.
Preview for DMV Appreciation Month
Every September we have the pleasure of celebrating the dedication and valuable work of all our DMV and licensing bureau partners during DMV Appreciation Month. It is an opportunity for us to thank you, the front-line champions, for the commitment you have to our mission of saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation. We will be hosting the annual decorating contest again this year and cannot wait to see the creativity of all your offices!
All Call for Tabling Possibilities
I
s your office interested in hosting an organ, eye and tissue donation information table this summer or fall? If you would like to have an information table in your office to answer community questions, or if there is an event in your community where you know that donation information should be shared, please reach out to Jessica Cleary, Donor Designation Coordinator, at jcleary@mwtn.org .
Wiffle Ball Saves and Enhances Lives
Who would ever think that a bunch of kids playing Wiffle ball as they grew up would one day turn into something that would save and enhance the lives of people forever?
As a child, Chad Stacy would spend hours playing Wiffle ball with his friends and cousins. In adulthood, he would reminisce with his mom, Linda Isaac, about his fondness for the time spent playing the game.
After high school, Chad joined the Marines and spent two tours of duty in Iraq, returning home in 2010. Linda said her son was a loving guy known for his kindness, giving nature and willingness to always help others.
It was no surprise to Linda that he was a registered organ, eye and tissue donor when he passed away from a tragic car accident in 2017. Chad was texting while driving.
His spirit lives on
As a donor hero, Chad helped save or enhance the lives of 157 people. His gifts of life included donating both corneas, heart valves, tissue and tendons.
Two of the recipients of Chad’s gifts have been in touch with Linda. “One woman lives on the West Coast,” said Linda. “She is an outdoors enthusiast and is active in all types of adventures. She tore the ACL in her knee and continues to thank us for Chad’s gift that has allowed her to play with her grandkids and to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.”
So, how does Wiffle ball change lives? Linda wanted to do something that honored and celebrated Chad’s life. Nine years ago, she started the Chad Stacy Wiffle Ball Tournament to honor donor heroes and celebrate organ, eye and tissue recipients. Proceeds from the event are donated to a donor recipient family and to Midwest Transplant Network.
Linda volunteers as an MTN Ambassador and promotes the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation within the community. Even Chad’s young niece named in his honor, Chadlee, volunteers for MTN when she can.
Left: Donor hero Chad Stacy. Right: The event continues to grow each year and attracts individuals of all ages.
On the right: Chad’s niece Chadlee
Mission
Saving lives by honoring the gift of donation with dignity and compassion
Vision
Leading organ and tissue donation through excellence, quality and partnerships
Contact Us
For more information or questions, call 913-262-1668 or visit mwtn.org
Follow Us
/MidwestTransplantNetwork
/MidwestTransplantNetwork
/MidwestTransplantNetwork
@MWTransplant
Midwest Transplant Network
Upcoming Events
Event Audience Key
General MTN
Licensing, Treasury and Department of Revenue Partners Hospital Partners
View all upcoming events: mwtn.org/events
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August
Aug. 1 – 31 • National Multiethnic Donor Awareness Month
National Multiethnic Donor Awareness Month is a time to save and improve the quality of life of diverse communities by creating a positive culture for organ, eye and tissue donation.
For more information: mwtn.org/nmdam
September
Sept. 1 – 30 • DMV Appreciation Month
DMV Appreciation Month is a time to recognize partnerships with DMV and licensing bureau offices and thank them for their work to help save and enhance lives through organ, eye and tissue donation.
For more information: mwtn.org/dmv-month
November
Nov. 1 – 30 • Faith and Hope Month
Midwest Transplant Network invites you to connect your faith community with our Community Engagement & Public Relations staff. Faith communities interested in presentations, providing resources or an online toolkit are encouraged to email Nichole Asquith, Community Engagement Coordinator, at nasquith@mwtn.org with the subject line “Faith and Hope Month.”
For more information: nasquith@mwtn.org
