| 
16th annual Betty Buckley Donor Family Ceremony is Oct. 19
Gift of Life Michigan will honor organ and tissue donors from last year at this beautiful ceremony from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., October 19. The event
will take place at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. It will include opportunities to pin up newly created quilt squares, have a family photo taken
with the quilts, see your loved-one's photo in a slideshow presentation and receive the U.S. Surgeon General's Certificate of Appreciation.
Invitations were mailed in mid- to late-August to families of those who became donors in 2007.
For detailed information about this year's Donor Family Ceremony, please click here to download a flier of information.
Gift of Life announces 2008-2009
University Challenge Poster Contest
Details and rules are available by downloading the flier. For more information, contact Jennifer Tislerics at jtislerics@giftoflifemichigan.org or 800-482-4881.
Gift of Life congratulates Team Michigan:
Transplant Games show winning spirit,
success of organ donation
 |
| Terry Gould (center), a heart transplant recipient, won six
medals at the U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh. He is flanked by Trevor and Lon Coleman; their brother, Chase, was Terry's donor. They and other
Team Michigan representatives were welcomed home by Gift of Life Michigan staff. |
Ann Arbor, July 22, 2008 - Gift of Life Michigan gave a rousing homecoming to representatives of Team Michigan following its winning performance at the National Kidney Foundation's U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh. The transplant recipient athletes brought home 54 medals, proving that organ donation works. They and their donor families also sent a strong message about the wondrous gift.
"Success came from being known as the team that got along with everyone and each other, because we know that the competition is secondary to the real reason we are there: to promote organ donation," Kathy Homan, the team co-manager and a National Kidney Foundation of Michigan representative, told more than 100 Gift of Life employees.
Click here to read the entire press release.
August 1st is National Minority Organ Donor Awareness Day.
Celebrate with us by watching the powerful, personal testimonies of a living kidney donor and his father, who received the kidney transplant, on our
Multicultural Education page.
Gift of Life Proudly Names New Executive Director Richard Pietroski and Bids a Fond Farewell to Thomas Beyersdorf
Ann Arbor, April 4, 2008 —Richard E. Pietroski of Ann Arbor will serve as the newly appointed Executive Director at Gift of Life Michigan beginning Friday, April 4. He will replace Thomas M. Beyersdorf, who will retire as Executive Director, after serving for more than 15 years with vision, skill and compassion.
Read the full release.
Donation after Cardiac Death fulfills families' wishes, save lives
Donation after Cardiac Death, or DCD, has drawn renewed interest in recent years as a way to help the nearly 100,000 people in the United States who
need a life-saving organ transplant.
Simply put, DCD is the recovery of organs from a donor whose heart has naturally and irreversibly stopped beating. It is the way all donation was done
prior to the establishment of brain death laws. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has set
a goal that at least 10 percent of all organ donations be done by DCD, versus the more standard donation after brain death. Likewise, the Institute of
Medicine has reviewed the practice three times (1997, 2000 and 2005) and found
DCD not only acceptable but has encouraged expansion of its use.
A recent California case in the news has raised questions about the DCD process. At Gift of Life Michigan, and at other organ recovery organizations
across the nation, we follow clear policies and procedures to ensure DCD is done properly and honors the generous, life-saving gift of each donor and
his or her family. Click here for more facts about Donation after Cardiac Death.
|
A new initiative to encourage hospital staff and their friends and family to sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry is under way.
