And welcome to the gifted like podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. I'm your host Lori Steele and joining me is Joey Boudreau and Joey we're getting good feedback which I'm excited about. I mean this is episode six so some reviews in I just want to read a couple one says great information so we like that and one says learn so much and that's what we're trying to do. Teach.
Educate so we can have those healthy conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. Now we're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff and we also want you to help spread the word about this podcast. Yep we want you to spread the word and we want you to like us you know on Facebook donate life Louisiana. You can look at us on follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the handle donate life Ellie and we also we want you to subscribe to our podcast and give us those ratings and tell us a little bit about what we can do better what things are great.
Somebody's confident over there. We're available on iTunes, Ditcher, Windows, Phone, Mirror, Beyond Pod, Tune In and Pocket Cast. We learned some lingo and watch us go. I don't know.
Alright well here on the show today we are going to be in the news talking about what I understand is a big announcement that I don't even know about. Joey's been holding this, he's smiling and so I'm excited to learn as well. Can we in our recovery segment we're going to talk a little bit about the organs about which organs can be recovered. We like to dispel myths on every podcast today we tackle can I have a traditional funeral.
In our community segment we'll talk about how one hospital is making a big difference. Plus you'll hear about how technology is playing a part in matching donors and recipients. And as usual as we do in every podcast we're going to honor a hero. Plus we'll take your questions we'll answer them and much much more here on the gifted life podcast.
It is time for news here on the gifted life podcast and I'm on pins and needles because Mr. Joey Boudreau has been sitting on some information that he would not share he said you know in time be patient. Okay the time is here. Come on.
Here it is. Okay. Laurie I've been waiting to tell people because I've been kind of following the trends and we have now reached 500,000 organs transplanted in the United States through the UNO system. Wow.
That is huge half a million people. Wow. That was worth the wait. The word is spreading.
The word is out there. That is some good news. So you get a pass for keeping that information from us but spread the word let everybody know facts are so important and we always talk about reaching people who would normally talk about organ donation and different things. And so who do we partner with?
How do we reach those people? Well Susanna knows Susanna works for Loba. She's one of our partners and she is on the inside track when it comes to making life happen in the schools. Joining us now is Susanna Morton and she is a community educator with a Louisiana organ procurement agency and she covers the Acadiana area and one of the things because she does many has many talents but one of the things that she does for Loba is that she is the muscle behind our poster contest which is just cool in itself.
It is. The poster contest has been going on. Is it six years now Susanna? We just concluded our sixth year.
We have our winners from our sixth year and we're actually getting ready to launch the seventh annual Donate Life Louisiana poster contest. That is amazing. To think about that it's been that long. It feels to me Susanna.
It's only been like one or two years. I can remember going back a couple years and we vote and everything and it's so talented and the artwork is just incredibly beautiful. It really is. It really has grown.
You know when we started this contest seven years ago we just it was kind of I guess experimental just to see what kind of interest we had. So we did it just here in Acadiana to start with nine through twelfth grade and now it's you know a statewide contest and has been now for the last several years for a grade six through twelfth so we have middle and high school involved as well. So you know it's really it's really fun to watch it grow and see the interest that we have year to year. You know we have teachers that actually email us or you know call us wanting to know when are you all going to get the new information out you know looking forward to doing the contest every year.
And let's talk about just the reason why we started it why we continue to do it because it's just another way and we talk about that on the podcast trying to reach out to different audiences and this was just genius but we teach about organ donation in these schools in these art classes and then what do these kids take from it they put it on canvas or poster it's just incredible. It really is you know and just what you said about nobody would ever think let's invite a local community educator to come speak to our art class you know I mean a lot of times we get into the biology classes and maybe the health classes but this is a way for students that we might not touch in those classes to get involved and to put together a creative a visual image of you know portraying the life-saving aspect of organ and tissue donation and what we do so it's really cool like Joey said every year to get this artwork in and see the different creative avenues of how these kids think you know and educate our communities. Suzanne and of course being in the Lafayette office I've been able to be one of the fortunate enough to be one of the judges each year. It's tough.
It is tough. Look I'm telling you we go back and forth because they are it is beautiful artwork that they do and it's got such meaning behind it you can see how much they're putting themselves into the artwork it's so beautiful so difficult for us can you talk a little bit about this year and the winners that came out from this year's contest. Yeah absolutely like you're saying Joey it is so difficult to kind of to really siphon through all of the artwork and you know we do pick a top 12 because for people listening who don't know we actually create a calendar that we distribute to the schools to the offices of motor vehicles and to other areas in our community so for the artwork we pick this year the top 12 we will have a calendar next year for 2016 showcasing the artwork from this year's contest and so those top 12 have been chosen and they will be notified within you know pretty soon and we'll let them know their artwork is going to be featured. We have several teachers every year who look forward to this contest and one of those is Tracy Campbell at Bolton High School in Alexandria and you know she's kind of the model teacher for this contest.
Contest. Yes she you know she takes the information she gives it to her students and she actually educates them on Oregon and Tissue Donation. You know she is actually very passionate about what we do just because it's something that she believes in and so she uses this exactly the way we intended for it to be used and so her students are educated on donations she encourages them to do research you know I get emails from her throughout the year for students have questions and we're able to answer those and so she always sends some incredible artwork in and she's had students placed in the past this year was a little bit different in that first second and third place all came from Bolton High School. I didn't realize that.
It just goes to show. It was crazy how it happened you know and I mean the votes were literally I mean first place was just out of the water I mean that was it was a very obvious first second was pretty obvious third fourth we're kind of close we had to you know really count those votes but yeah first second third off from Bolton High School and that was from out of about 150 injuries this year so you know it's just it was really cool I think because she is so passionate about what we do and making sure her students are educated and really helping them artistically to articulate our message so well and knowing that we're going to use these pieces in you know a calendar in our community to better educate people of Louisiana about Oregon and Tissue donation. She does such a great service you know she really gets it not only does she educate her students but it allows us to use that beautiful artwork and help educate the rest of the state such a great thing that she's doing. I think it's also been great for our donor families and recipients throughout the state because a few years ago we started incorporating their stories in the calendar as well and quotes from them and I find in our community and in our schools and the people who receive these calendars they really look forward to them every year you know because they are just yeah well right they're just so packed you know not only do you have this incredible artwork portraying our message but you also have these families and these faces to put with donation and these messages that are being conveyed you know in the calendar so it's just it is exciting it's exciting for me to see how much the project's grown and to see you know like Joey said the different staff getting involved in voting and even us as community educators seeing it come to fruition I guess it just it really is a fun thing to watch.
I'm amazed how you take care of that every year and thank goodness for you know but one of the things that we do is around the start of the school year is kind of when it kicks off and you can tell us a little bit more but when I talk to the students I say this is resume building material because if you make the top 12 you get in the statewide publication that helps a nonprofit how great does that look when you're going on scholarship interviews and those kinds of things hopefully that spurs the movement as well but for those who are just listening and saying hey we want our school to get involved or my child to get involved just some of the basic rules that you look for when it comes to the poster contest. Sure you know we are always looking for more schools to get involved and we usually do get a lot of questions and just before I do kind of go into that just for those listening we do post the rules and regulations they will be on our website when the time comes typically when we get ready to kick off the poster contest like you said at the beginning of the school year hopefully the first of September we have all that stuff ready to go so it can be accessed by the schools the teachers and the students but a couple of the things we really try to look for the teacher has to submit a student so we have to have a signature from a teacher now one thing is it doesn't have to be an art teacher it could be a biology teacher who has an art you know who has an artistic student you know and they think okay you know maybe we've been to give a presentation to their class or you know this student is just passionate and wants to do something for donation they can they can submit that artwork the teacher has to submit the student we do have to have parent signatures as well we always look for obviously originality one thing you know we don't want that's one thing I was asking Tracy from from Bolton High School you know when you tell your students when you you know ask them about when doing this contest and she actually does it as a class project so this is actually required by her students and so she says you know I tell them look at the calendar and don't do anything like what's in the calendar she says come up with something that you haven't seen that you don't see in this calendar and so you know I thought that's that's a really good way of showing it because we want original artwork and different artwork every year we also don't want anything that's been copyrighted no characters or anything that's already out there again six or twelve grade and you know there's just there's a long list of rules and regulations so that's why I say you know if there are students or teachers interested hopefully we'll have those posted for next year very soon and if they have questions info at lopa.org and we can get those steps to answer them here send you the information as well but we are excited about the calendars that are going to be coming out and maybe you're wondering how can I get calendars so info at lopa.org as well but you'll be posting these as well of the artwork yes the artwork is going to be posted on Facebook I'm hoping to get that done by the end of the week I've got to go get my my really good digital prints done so that we can post those they will go on our Facebook page probably first is where they're going to be announced and then we will go to our website so that way people can access them you know through the summer and see them there as well and not have to scroll through about just a fun Facebook so those people who don't know too we do kind of have some incentives for these students because the first place it's an iPad first place winner second place this year I know I think we're kind of changing the prizes up next year but comparable to the prizes from this year we did an iPad for first place at Kindle Fire HD for second place and a hundred dollar Amazon gift card for third place so high school sophomore in high school I know come on and so and then Tracy the teacher she gets the winning teacher for first place it's a two hundred fifty dollar gift card anywhere of their choice that yes absolutely so you know we do have incentives to get these students and teachers involved so well Joey and I are sitting here thinking I mean we got some great ideas going how can we get involved you know we got a party already well we appreciate you thanks for your hard work it's always incredible if you have any questions for Susanna about the poster contest or events happening in the Acadian area info at lopa.org thanks thanks guys love me some Susanna doing some great work but it sounds like she pretty much said you and I can't enter no prizes though that's good prizes and I have to just reiterate how impressive and talented these artists are and how much effort they put in I've been a judge like I said for the ten years or so and it's a hard job it is the talent they are across the board and the effort they put throughout the state is really amazing I love it and I love that the teacher pairs education about donation in her class as a class project and then you get to see the finished product so it's amazing we want you to monitor Facebook and our website lopa.org so we can see all this artwork this fancy artwork unveiled it is now time for the recovery segment in the gifted life podcast and today we're going to touch on organs recovered I work out in the community and a lot of folks want to know about those life-saving organs that can be recovered to breathe life into someone else so when we go through its heart lungs liver kidneys pancreas small intestine so one person we say has the power to save nine lives but we recover those six organs and that spurs another conversation well how does that happen right and just so we can clarify you know these organs are the life-saving organs the whole organs again is technically an organ but but that's considered a tissue obviously and we kind of touched on the tissues recovered before skin bones and part for valves and things like that and also we've touched on the eyes that are recovered for transplant but in this segment we'll just talk about the organs that are transplanted for life-saving purposes which is like you said the heart lungs liver kidneys pancreas and small intestine very good and then you know one person can save nine lives we have two kidneys two lungs and that liver can be split so it's amazing what can happen what we know works not experimental we have testimonies we have folks who travel with us who tell their stories so we recover these organs and then one of the questions that comes up especially in health class Joey is so if we recover like a heart for example how long do you have to make life happen and it's different for different organs yes it is and I get that question quite often a heart and the heart and lungs actually only have around four hours so we have to have everything timed out which is what I've touched on you know in a previous episode it takes a long time for a recovery to take place for the whole process to take place because we have to have everything lined up perfectly and timed perfectly from the donor side to donor hospital and the transplant side and the recipient side because once blood flow stops to these organs the cells to the cell tissues in those organs start to die now we'll put them in like kind of like a preservation solution to prevent the cell cellular death of the cells from dying and it will also put that in in an eye on ice but still there is some cellular death that occurs some organ damage that takes place so for hearts and lungs you're talking about four hours from blood flow to blood flow not four hours in an ice chest it's four hours from the time the blood stops to the time the blood starts in the recipient so just hearing that you would have to think about the communication that has to go on between all these teams teamwork we've got roughly at that time five or six different channels of communication going on at each each minute basically in the OR I mean it's constant one talking to another talking to another you know because of that very thing they've got to have everything timed out on their end because that can't be a mistake made and thank goodness they're good at what they do I mean constant training the cases that that come in they're just so good at what they do like we said those special talents thank goodness for them and it's different times for different for different organs so we hit on the heart but the other organ and the liver has a little bit longer that we can that we can you know transport it's usually around six to twelve hours again there still has to be a lot of communication they try to keep that time frame under six hours because again with each hour comes organ damage so it has to be timed out just right the kidneys and pancreas and intestine generally have roughly around 24 hours from blood flow to blood flow now now here in Louisiana in most organ recovery agencies there's a kidney preservation machine right that that that kind of mimics the bodies blood flow into the kidneys and we have a few of these and we'll put the kidneys on a pump it's called we call them a pump a kidney pump and we'll put them on and it's enables us to prolong that time you know beyond 24 hours in in most cases up to it's been up to 72 hours in some cases but but generally speaking beyond 24 hours so that's a really nice thing there are other perfusion pumps for the other organs that are that are making their way they're still in the experimental phase at this point but the lungs now have a perfusion pump and the heart has you know what they call a heart in the box you know and it's it's hopefully they're gonna do the same things we're seeing some extended times with with those you know from four hours to eight and twelve hours which is huge you know when you talk about transportation time it extends it extends the geographic area from from what would you know normally be maybe you know from from Louisiana extend out to three states and it allows enables us to be able to extend that you know out almost across the country you know so that's a huge breakthrough it's still in the experimental phase you know but it's it's something that we're really looking forward to here in Louisiana. I'm always amazed at what can be done today and then what will happen tomorrow because we never know with technology with with all these developments that are happening it's just an amazing process so we appreciate you listening and obviously learning more about it. One of the other questions that I get since we're talking about organs is is there one organ that's needed more than other organs like in Louisiana for example well of course then we have the conversation about kidneys.
Yeah well you know as a from a cultural standpoint we like to eat our gumbo and our A2 fe and I can't cook it but I need it. You know and it's great but we have a lot of high blood pressure that comes you know from our state is one of the unfortunately one of the bottom five in the country in high blood pressure we've got a lot of diabetes also so that generally if left untreated will lead to kidney failure and across the country you see that you know there's a lot higher incidence of kidney failure than the other organs. There are in fact over a hundred thousand people waiting in the United States for for a kidney so it is by far the largest and the biggest need and the wait time on these kidneys. On average you're looking at you know roughly two to five years from most people some are lucky enough to get it sooner but then you know it depends on the blood type and it depends like I mentioned earlier in the matching you know the blood type and size and and antigens and certain things have to match up just right so so it kind of depends but but that's a certainly a lengthy time you know the need is there we need everyone to spread the word.
We have some fantastic volunteers and a lot of them are kidney recipients who have waited that time and they said it's really not much of a life because a lot of them are tied to a machine for most of their lives and some of them are parents and because they're tied to those dialysis machines they can't provide for their families they can't raise their children the way that they would want them to it's just a difficult life and so this was really a gift a second chance for them to get out and live. It is fortunately they can you know extend two to five years like I mentioned on average because of the dialysis machine but at the same time you can't go anywhere you can't travel you know it's three times a week and sometimes more you know that they've got to be there for multiple hours at a time so it's a difficult three to five years it's a difficult time waiting so once they do have that second chance and they're able to receive that life saving gift it changes their life. Oh and they're so appreciative and it's inspirational for someone like me to hear them tell their stories because for stuck in traffic all that can ruin the rest of my day until you hear those stories and say you know we could have been in their shoes would I have been that strong and to be able to last you know that long stuff it's just incredible that's why it's so important for you to have these conversations we're hoping that you're listening to this maybe in the car the kids are there let's talk about it why do we have a heart in our license we want to help save lives one person has the power to save up to nine lives which is incredible so it's an important decision make an educated decision talk about it spread the word about this podcast let's learn a little and live a lot. Okay Joe we hold on to your hats are you ready let's bust some of those myths right we always like to squash the myths that are out there when it comes to donation and replace those with facts we hope to spur those healthy conversations and we want you to use those facts to have a healthy discussion so today we are tackling a question that we get a lot about especially at our end of life seminars etc I won't be able to have a traditional funeral service is what they think right and so we have to enlighten them that you absolutely can help save lives and still have a traditional funeral.
That's absolutely correct I'll break it down just into the three different types of donations but in each of them you can have an open casket viewing and have cremation if you need or if that's what you prefer for eye donation they put in a small prosthetic implant that the funeral home attendant would have put in anyway because your eyes are made up of a lot of water and aqueous solution or water type solution and they'll have to put those in regardless if donation took place or not and on tissue they do a lot of the same things they'll put prosthetics we've talked about in our previous podcast and they take a lot of pride in rebuilding with the prosthetics that's one of the first things that they have to learn in their orientation when they're training for to become a tissue recovery staff member and regardless if it's an upper extremity or lower extremity recovery they'll still be able to put in the prosthetics and you would never know that someone you may have even seen someone at a funeral you may have gone to a funeral of you and not even known that and same thing with an organ recovery our organ recoveries are simply one midline incision it looks kind of like a heart surgery so in each of the three cases there is no change to the viewing whatsoever so that is a myth and the only real difference is that the funeral may be delayed a day or so because again we have to try to find the best home for these organs and tissues before we do the recovery so that may delay that 24 hours but that is really the only difference in the funeral home services that we'll see and i've been affiliated with lopa even before i i work with them volunteering with them but i've never heard a single complaint from the owner family and then joey and i can sit here and we can tell you these facts all day and all night which we're not going to i don't think at this point but we want you to talk to those people who know a hero someone who's been to a funeral because one of our donor moms you know we have these wonderful volunteers across the state who do so much for us but when she's speaking she says he my son my hero was just beautiful they took the best care and that was my boy there and it gives me the chills talking about it but go and talk to these donor family members folks who know these heroes people who have saved lives and you know learn those facts talk about it and if you're not signed up to be an organ donor we sure hope that you're given a lot of thought now and that one day you do community partners making a difference we love to talk about this they come from all walks of life and my goodness the difference they make yes they do and so often we think of hospitals helping us strictly with organ donation our tissue donation and eye donation but there's so many including spring hill medical that go above and beyond not just helping during a donation process but helping spread awareness helping with the communities and then they help in every aspect through helping support that donor family so so this is one of those partners for us joining us now is shalon la chilat she is a community educator with a louisiana organ procurement agency one of my cohorts and she covers 18 parishes in north louisiana and one of her standouts is spring hill medical center so you know all about this and we can't wait to hear more how are you jalon i'm doing great larry how are you doing oh we're good it's fun shalon to have that partnership that we've got with these hospitals large or small you know a lot of times we think more of our larger hospitals having to do more because there are more donors but there's a lot of times it's a smaller hospital that makes such a big impact not only on on having donors there at the hospital but also being able to educate the community and help educate from a partnership standpoint this is we're talking about a 58-bed hospital and they serve basically the very northern part of louisiana and southern part of arkansas that kind of top northwest corner of the state there and they've done a lot over the last year right now they really have i've been in spring hill almost four years now and um you know from the get go whenever i walked in and said hey i'm with lopa can we can we do some education they uh they really jumped right on board and said okay let's let's learn more and let's see what we can do to help you guys make life happen what i like is that you live there so you get to witness this each and every day and one of the things that um just comes through for me is you talking about this flag raising ceremony because it was um personal it was inspirational and you just can't get enough of it that's right their first flag raising ceremony was um in donate life month of 2014 so just last year and um it was really the first flag raising ceremony for a hospital of their size in louisiana which was something that they really took pride in being one of the first we loved you know helping our partners be a first and then you know the hospital staff was part of the event the staff chaplain was there to bless the flag all of the staff was out there we had two donor families from spring hill louisiana that were out there to honor their heroes we did a balloon release and i think everybody was really astounded by that because it was somebody right here in their town that was affected by donation and that was walking among them every day so we were joined by the city mayor and city council members and dignitaries so it was a really wonderful event and i think that that's really what has started the momentum for them that momentum you talk about it kind of sparked a wave of events and things that they've done for donate life can you tell us a little bit about what happened what they've done for donate life america or donate life month in april for donate life america on that end the ceo wrote a dedication on a rose vial for the donate life rose float that donate life america has every year in pacadena for the rose parade so that was a little piece of spring hill that was going to be on a national stage in pacadena and he was really um very very open to having spring hill represented there as as a supporter of donation so that was one of the great things that um we kicked off 2015 with and then in april for donate life month i went to talk to them i said okay i said it's donate life month it's coming up what are we gonna do this year what do y'all want to do this year and they said you know what we heard about this blue and green day so i talked to them about what blue and green day is and how you know we could do a thing with the staff where the staff did like a big blue and green picture and they said shalon you know what i think this is what we're gonna do we're gonna make t-shirts and we're gonna sell them and we're gonna have you know the staff involved but we can sell them to outside people and we're gonna have a fundraiser and donate those funds back to lopa because of course they know lopa is a non-profit and you know those funds help us do our community education and reach out within the community so they took it on full fledged and that day that was april 17th this year they had a big photo op and presented us with a check and then we raised the donate life flag and the other day i passed by and it's still flying and so yeah and we're in may now so that's that's even better for me they they love flying that flag and they take pride in it and to have a hospital partner any of our hospital partners take that pride and being a part of such a wonderful gift it's heartwarming and it's a leadership role for them people look to them for advice for guidance that's what our hospitals are and when they display that donate life flag it tells the public it tells everybody that comes to that hospital we know about we support donation and it's a part of the natural process right and it doesn't matter large or small how large the hospital is that small hospitals can make that big an impact all it takes is one person to really spread the word out and they're doing such a tremendous job you know spreading the word letting everybody know that donation is a part of our hospital that's right and it really has trickled down you know there's there's been i've had opportunities to be in parades up here where me and my children have decorated our car with donate life stuff and be in the place because they're normally on our donate life facebook page so you have to continue to monitor that and like that page if you haven't already but that's how you get to see all of this really come to life that's right and so reaching out in those communities that's what is our driving force letting people know that donation can affect anybody and everybody and how important it is to register as a donor and talk to your family about it make sure you have that conversation well good job to you shalon thanks for letting us know more about spring hill medical center and all the wonderful things that they are doing and will continue to do and we will let everyone know about those events that are coming up etc you can go to donate life la.org we have a calendar there of events that are coming up across the state and of course jalon adds to that as well so good job to you tell spring hill we love them i certainly will i'll pass that along they're going to be excited to know that they were featured so thank you all so much for thanking others thank you shalon thanks again to our partners at spring hill medical center and all of those hospitals that go above and beyond to help us create donor awareness yes thank you so much we certainly appreciate the help and we want to say hey if you work at a hospital and maybe you want to do a little bit more and you want to incorporate some of what you heard here today lopa.org slash hospitals lopa.org slash hospitals are send us some information and we'll get you what you need. Technology in donation oh my goodness what technology has helped us accomplish and i only know the system as we know it now but joe you've been around when pagers and fax machines and the dial telephone right great back in the day the good old days right but technology can be your you see infinite amount of wisdom here but there is a system a program that helps to make life happen it's more efficient and oh my goodness it's just full speed ahead it is unit is that system you're talking about unit is a secure internet database that was created by unos and in previous podcast i talked about unos unos as united network for argan sharing and they're the overseer of the list you know that wait list that we talk about right and let me go back a couple years prior to unit being created in 2006 we kind of had to walk uphill both ways in the snow you know we had like you said those those pagers and the fax machines what we do is we make a phone call when we had a donor we make a phone call to the next you know to the transplant center and make an offer let's say we knew that the echo was good the ultrasound was good on on this donor's heart we make the call and say hey look we think this would be a good match for you now they took time to evaluate and then if they turn that heart down for whatever reason then we have to make another call to the next transplant center and so on and so forth and but we don't want to let that gift go by the wayside right we want to yeah find home it's such a valuable precious gift there's a finite amount of time you know we don't have forever so uh so what you knows is enabled us to do is they've created unit uh this database that i'm talking about internet database and it allowed for all the transplant centers to put all of the recipient information in there all of their data their labs and things like that and and all the key things that would enable us to be able to match make closer matches so when we have a donor we enter the donor's information and then it automatically creates this match through what we call the wait list you know the match run we is the terms we use and we can then make three offers at a time and and i know you're saying okay why how can you make three offers you still talking about that one heart right but what we'll do is make an offer what we call a primary offer and so for the transplant center that's got the recipient that's highest on the list but then the next two will offer as a backup and say hey look you're backup but just in case you know there's something that goes on with the first transplant center you'll then become primary so they'll start looking and if there's any recipient issues or any type of matching issues that we didn't foresee and they turn the heart down then the second and third transplant centers are already looking and it just cuts the time down so much so that we don't have the ways to give and we have a volunteer who said that of the three people called up for a possible transplant he was number two and then very quickly learned that he was number one and he said from talking to those medical professionals it was a fever or something that they couldn't do that transplant so that's why we don't let that gift be wasted and we want to make sure that it has a home yeah one of the other things that allows us to do i mentioned you know a lot about the on the transplant recipient side but from the donor side you know they need to be able to know that the gift that we're offering is suitable is just right for their potential recipient so we can upload all kind of things into this database like chest x-rays like the echoes those ultrasounds of the heart or like CAT scans and different things so that they can take a look themselves you know so that those surgeons of the potential recipients are looking themselves and saying okay yes this would be the perfect gift this is the perfect heart for my recipient and i'm just in awe of the people that i work with because this all goes on when we don't see i'm out in the community so you guys really have your hands full trying to make these matches get all this stuff done and technology is just a helping hand that we use it is and this is one of the biggest technological advancements that we've had in organ donation in its history you know so it's it's huge and of course they're still making improvements you know we're still trying we're always looking to improve that's good we like that making life happen here in Louisiana now if you have questions about what we talked about info at lopa.org or maybe something else you heard on the podcast or something you were thinking or something you may have heard or seen in a movie info at lopa.org we'd love to hear from you and maybe you want to have us in your classroom during the summer we do a lot of summer classes with those health programs or 4-H clubs or different kinds of things but you can visit our website lopa.org speaker and we'll get out to you we're very flexible we just want you to be armed with effects okay joey it's time that we honor a hero and this really has become one of my favorite segments when it comes to the gifted life podcast these are the people that we work so hard for these donors their donor families the recipients these are our families really but we are honoring today miss alexis porta and we know alexis through her mom ronda who hangs out at lopa quite a bit she's very special to us not only being a donor mom and a volunteer she's been part of our advisory board where she helps guide a lot of our policies kind of from the perspective of the donor families so she's a very special lady to us and if you meet her she's just very quiet soft voice but if you ask about her hero alexis then you hear her come forward let me tell you about my baby and i just love that and so she wouldn't want us concentrating on her she wants us concentrating on her baby alexis alexis was a dancer beautiful beautiful girl she like ting with her friends and her cousins and they have this huge family and if you're hanging with their family you're part of the family which is which is what i love but at 16 and this was back in june of 2001 alexis died of an aneurysm in the brain after a night out with her friends and she became a hero her heart went to a 61 year old married lady her liver went to a 13 year old boy her right kidney saved the life of a 59 year old married lady her left kidney saved the life of a 57 year old man and her pancreas went to a 35 year old man all these people had a second chance at life because of alexis so she is a true hero and every year miss ronda and the family they wear these bright pink shirts that have a little stick drawing of an angel and they host what's called alexis's angel sale so all year joey i love this story because once a week they get together they grow plants they do crafts they refurbish antiques they have this huge day it's always a Saturday after Easter and it's called alexis's angel sale and all the proceeds benefit donate life Louisiana to help spread awareness about organ donation but at this angel sale before you go anywhere you have to see the picture of alexis because she has like a trifold board that you can tell only a mama bid right and so it has alexis's picture on there the brown little ponytail and her sports gear and and then you have the stories about all the lives that she saved and so for 12 years they've been doing this folks come for the garage sale a lot of people like plants they like to get there early but they don't leave without learning a little bit aboutlexis and a little bit about organ donation and so one of the last things that they see is one of the bumper stickers that that we have and it says don't take your organs to heaven heaven knows we need them here please learn the facts about organ donation so we can save more lives and it's just an incredible story and to be with this family you're a part of this family and we just love alexis we just love miss ronda and we love what they do and the entire family so right now at this point the podcast as we do in every podcast when it comes to our heroes we want to pause and we want to say thank you to lexis porta for the gift of life okay we have reached a point in other gift of life podcast where you become part of the show this is our question and answer segment and remember info at lopa.org 24 7 you have a question you saw something you want to know more that's where you get us info at lopa.org and we'd like to address those questions one of the questions that came into us joey was i want to register as a donor but i don't let the heart on my driver's license can i do that that's a great question or and most of the time these questions and answer segments are all about organ and clinical but this is a community question so we brought in the big guns kyerson heist she's the director of public relations and community education for lopa yes and she spends a lot of time with the omv heads office motor vehicles the commissioner constantly visiting because they want to help us make life happen so kyerson welcome hey lory and joey how are y'all doing good you know what we heard about you that you totally enjoy the gifted life podcast it is my favorite podcast yes we see you sharing it on facebook and subscribing to it and we appreciate that kyerson and giving excellent ratings five stars we like that we brought you in because we want um you to give us all the details that you know about this question that came in info at lopa.org wanting to register as a donor but not wanting that heart on the driver's license which is something we hear a lot about it is a great question and one that we hear in the community yes we often hear about people being concerned about having the heart on their license because they're worried they won't get the medical treatment that someone else that doesn't have a heart would get and we talked about that in our first podcast how that's completely not true the hospital is charged with saving your life first and only after all life saving efforts have been exhausted do they look more donation to become an option but if you still don't feel comfortable with having the heart on the license you can still register on our website at either lopa.org or donatelifela.org and the important thing is to let your family know what your wishes are in either case whether you have the heart on your license or you register online but you can be a donor without having it on your license of course most people do say yes at the office of the vehicles i've even had people that have said they want the little heart on their license and don't realize what it's about they just like the heart and we like that we'll take them too but we also like to educate and so when we're out in the community kyerson a lot of people ask about the onvey but a lot of them would prefer to go online like you said look at work or donate life la.org which won't put the heart on your license but you'll be in the registry correct larry and they'll still be in the registry we'll still be able to access that information but it won't show up on your license with the heart if you do change your mind at any point next time you go to the office of medicals you can let them know that you want to add it if you want to take it off you can let me take it off and you can still register online if you change your mind at any point and we know that you're constantly with the administration there the commissioner misquin all those supporters for donation and we just want to say thank you to those office of medical workers as well who asked that important question who wear the blue and green during the blue and green day back in april we talked about this but one of the onvey's in the acadian area a car accidentally drove through the onvey so they sent us a picture of the blue and green in front of the crashed building and they said we are dedicated to help you guys save lives that's a dedication we'd like to see they are wonderful over 85 of the registry comes from the office of medicals that is the place where most people say yes to donation it's not the only place you can do it but it is certainly the most popular place to do it and we really appreciate our partners at the office of medicals and we thank you miss kiersten for doing all that you do for lopa and we know that you and joe we work on a lot of projects together big projects that help to push lopa forward and we just love that you all for having me thanks kierson wow what a power patch show joe joe we love it we love our guests yep i want to give a special thanks to susana shalon and of course kiersten who helped become part of our podcast part of our little family there you go and there's so many more people who help to bring content to the table for the podcast we have um troy who do we even know what troy does something technical he's a jack ball trees i'm kidding troy we love you yes there's a lot going on to make this podcast possible so we want to thank all those people as well and then you know joe we were in the summer time sections a lot of kids are getting out of school and those kinds of things we are really busy booking presentations um for a hex those allied health education programs um for four-h clubs even for the smaller kids we go in when we talk about organ health um if you get into the older kids um we talk more about donation so we are really flexible and can adjust to what you have in that classroom and then we can do a 30-minute presentation we can do an hour presentation we have hands-on activity so really if you are looking for a speaker please call us up or if you know someone maybe your kids involved in a program and they need folks to come in we will do that and we bring goodies and sometimes candy joe i know you're there right yep be there be square all right so lopa.org is your one stop shop for information but if you go to lopa.org slash speaker you can put in your information and then a community educator where you live will contact you and talk about dates available time to that kind of thing so we try to be as flexible as possible because we want you to have the information that you need to make life happen so we love it we come to the end of another podcast which is incredible we're growing we hope that you help us spread the word about donation and about this podcast we appreciate all of you for listening and we'll talk to you next time here on the gifted life podcast