Hospital honored for organ donation rate
BY MICHELLE L. START Florida Weekly Correspondent

More than 3,000 Floridians are anxiously awaiting a phone call that will signal the end of someone else's life, but will allow them to continue theirs.

The majority are awaiting a kidney, which is the only organ that is transplanted in Lee County. Of those, 92 are registered at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center, which is the only local transplant center.

Their chances of receiving the lifesaving organ may be significantly higher thanks to efforts underway at the hospital.

Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center is being recognized for its donor rate and will receive the National Congress Medal of Honor in October. Of all of the possible deceased donors that come into the hospital, some 75 percent give organs for transplantation. Although the organs are donated locally, the recipient often does not live in Southwest Florida. Organ placement is determined by factors such as immediate need and viable distance.

Most of the organs harvested are transplanted into Florida patients.

Organ donation is possible when brain death occurs. A patient is frequently placed on a ventilator, but will die as soon as it is turned off.

Cindy Boily, vice president of patient care services at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center and Gulf Coast Hospital, said it takes continuous communication and teamwork to maintain such a high donation rate.

"One of the secrets is really good communication with the (donor) families about the condition of the patient so that the families can make informed decisions," she said. "It really is a credit to the doctors and the nurses taking care of them in critical care or in the emergency room."

LifeLink Foundation is a non-profit community service organization dedicated to the recovery of an increasing number of high quality organs and tissue for transplantation therapy. Across the United States there are 96,556 people waiting for an organ, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

"Once identified, there is one to one nursing in the critical care units," she said. "It involves nursing in the emergency room and in critical care, the labs and radiology. All of that has to be coordinated to support harvest."

Boily said that organs from a local person who died on May 6 went to at least six people. A 16-year-old Florida girl with cystic fibrosis received the right lung while a 61-year-old retired social studies teacher received the other. A kidney went to another woman while the second kidney went to a man who spent 22 years in the U.S. Navy. ¦