Hello and welcome to the gifted live podcast where we have those conversations about working tissue and I donation I'm Lori Steel and I'm Joy Boudreau and this is episode 20 20 episodes lower goodness high five Okay, but it's a very special day as well because it's December 25th So happy holidays to everyone out there Merry Christmas. Just a wonderful time of the year And I didn't sing at that time So that's good, but what an exciting year in donation and has been we're thankful for all those who work towards making life happen Across the way Special year as I mentioned in our Thanksgiving episode We've had our best year ever from a amount of people that said yes on the registration on the Louisiana registry and a lot of people That said yes to donation the number of heroes that we've had the amount of lives that we say It's been a great great year for us, Lauren Yeah, it's just a statewide team effort and then through this podcast We've been partnering with OBO's across the country as well So really a nationwide effort to save more lives through donation couldn't ask for better We mentioned the podcast thanks if you've been sharing it letting people know about it We've been having a lot of that happen, but remember to tell them where they can find us Absolutely, you can find us on iTunes coming soon on Google Play Laurie as we talked about before and then on any other of your favorite apps That you might have yeah, we also it's easy to find us easy to find us We like to make it as easy as possible. We also like to use social media So a lot of things that we talk about you'll see on our Facebook page Which is under donate life, Louisiana? You can follow us both on Twitter and Instagram.
We're at donate life LA So so much out there we try to make it a click away so that you can help us in any way shape or form possible and we appreciate it We always encourage you to give feedback most of you do that at info at lopa.org now Joe We have a new phone number for you to communicate with us better. That's right that number Lori Is 504 648 3477 what's that Joe that is 504 648 3477 so we love your feedback questions comments You may even be featured on a podcast coming up today on this podcast, you know It's the holidays Joey everybody celebrating getting together with family sharing memories making memories Which is what I love so we decided to bring in Lopez CEO in this very special 20th episode So she's gonna come in share her memories talk about her career how she started so that may be new for a lot of you And I'm talking about these memories about how we've progressed over you know two decades plus yeah And then our family support segment Laura We're gonna be talking a little bit about grief and its impact during this holiday season And one of my favorite times of the year the rose parade watching the donate life float roll down with the faces of these heroes These recipients. It's just so amazing and we have a Louisiana connection. We'll talk about that and then as we do in every episode We'll be honoring a hero.
Mm-hmm that and more here on the gifted life We are very excited because at this point in the podcast we have a guest who has never been on before this is episode 20 So pretty big deal, but Kelly ran on Lopa CEO joins us now. Hey, it's going hello How are you good so Joey a lot of people may not know that this podcast would not be reality had it not been for Yeah, so this was kind of your brainchild for Louisiana for Lopa for donation for donation. Yes, absolutely So I know you allow us to be innovative about things and present to us. Maybe we can do a podcast what brought that on I want of our annual meetings I saw a presentation from the Mayo Clinic and there was one of their social media directors I'm sure I'm demolishing his title there But he was talking about how they were able to promote services of the Mayo Clinic and get a lot of information out across the country On different disease processes, and I thought what a great way to educate the public about what we do and how we do it And so an idea was born and the wheels were in motion, and here we are today episode 20 Which is amazing and it's all about learning we're learning about each other the people who come together to make life happen We're learning about processes and how things have evolved over the years So let's start with you because what I did know is that you just worked your way up You didn't just step into the managerial role you fell in love with it a long time ago So I'm a lopa long time ago.
Yeah, so actually was working at Tulane in the ICU and was on a night shift So I was looking at the newspaper trying to figure out something different to do and saw an opening at Lopa I applied and they didn't hire me Oh, thank you. And that's how history is made And I guess about a month later they sent me a letter and asked me to come back in the interview And I did and I've been here since August 15th of 1995 and I started as a coordinator Which was a very different role than what it is today We actually did all of the hospital development we approached all the families We did the donor management in the ICU as well as the OR portion with very little assistance We have one surgical tech in there and then we did all the follow up with the families I like to tell the coordinators of today that we absolutely went both ways uphill in the snow with no shoes On your sandwiches, we don't understand that Absolutely, it was a very different day and there was a lot of turnover at Lopa probably upwards into the 50% mark And that just didn't seem to work for me. I thought this is a fantastic job What more could you want as a nurse or really anybody in life then to make a difference? And so I sort of started I guess my quest in moving up the ladder started as a an organ manager and just the Metery office and then became the director of Oregon the director of Oregon and tissue and then the interim Executive director at the time that was the title and I did that from 1990 It started 95 99 was when I had my first promotion and became the full-time executive director slash CEO in 2002 Wow, and in that time we've had so many changes under your religion under your direction How have you seen Lopa evolve over that the past what 15 years now?
Just technology we've learned about some here on the podcast is just amazing because you had to be quick on your feet too to get to it No social media 10 years ago Chat Facebook. Yes. How did you survive? I don't know It wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy. Yeah It was a zonyan sandwich. That's it It was really different the hospitals weren't as accepting. I don't think the public was us accepting information wasn't out there So yeah technology is going to turn men to this field and we're able to get our stories out Which I think is the biggest impact for any of us the reason we do this work is our donor families recipients Absolutely a very important part but to me the heart of what we do are our donor families and those stories inspire us You use those stories to inspire us and you still have contact with some of those families that you actually worked those cases I do I do I like for you.
I see one of my families every year at the Lopa annual family picnic and it's awesome I get to see now I see grand babies around grand baby number two allow and it's it's incredible It really is I don't even I don't even know how to put it into words So it's just awesome to be able to know that you had some small part in their life And then after all these years if you were to go to a donor family meeting a recipient I mean that still gets to you as well even if there's a language barrier or like I'm not calling right now Thank you Lori for pointing out the as richy eyes. It is. I am it's hard not to be affected by every story Whether it's a mom that's been affected a dad a brother a sister aunt uncle grandparent It's hard not to put your heart where they are and although it's a great gift and it's a tremendous honor to be a hero I still feel their pain that they go through and I'm always in all of the strength that they have in any situation that we see them in Whether they're volunteering for us or coming to a function that we sponsor or one of the iBank sponsors So I just feel blessed to be able to do what I do and Lori You know she talks about you know families and being able to meet their recipients and the impact that that has Thinking back and I can remember of course I started in 2002 which was a shortly after she took over And since kelly took over we had upward around 85 to 100 heroes through organ donation at that time And since has doubled you know and we're looking at hopefully having a year of where we're gonna have somewhere around 170 to 180 heroes So so the impact that has been made under kelly's direction has been enormous in the state Wow, and so you can hear the emotion you can hear our leader and then that just trickles down to the to the rest of us So we appreciate you. Thank you.
Yeah, and we do want to tell you thank you for getting us on this podcast run There's a lot of work that goes into it a lot of sweat and passion and it's amazing I mean we've been seeing the benefit so obviously a vision for for lopen for donation But it's holidays and it's chris this time today is christmas day to number 25 And we would like to show you how special you are to us and to others in making life happen We got your little thank you from the gifted life production team So I want to thank you for helping us all achieve so much for our donors donor families and recipients y'all are too sweet Thank you. I do. I love I guess kiersten told you I'm a book fanatic. Yes read um eraciously, so thank you It's a Barnes and no gift cards.
Thank you very much. Yeah, I do it without all of you It's surrounded by an incredible group of people and you thank you for allowing us to make this podcast happen Thank you. We hope to visit you again in the podcast. Yep.
Okay Lova CEO Kelly back We have reached our family support segment. So we have brought in again miss Sally dentry. How are you? I'm good How are you larry good of lopus family services?
We started a conversation last podcast want to continue with that? Don't you know we did larry at our last Thanksgiving podcast we talked about how the holidays are a time for family and friends and you know Laughter but at the same time we have to remember and Sally touched upon it how much grief really impacts us all at this time Absolutely, you know holidays are always a time for joint happiness for everyone especially those dealing with the sudden death of a loved one And each family member agrees differently and I think that's somewhat difficult at times for people to grasp But at this time of the year perhaps being able to sit down with your family including the kids too Because many times children are not included in these conversations about what do we do here at the holidays? It's going to be a very difficult time for all of us What are the expectations and as you all know, you know, there's a lot of expectations on all of us during the holidays Which makes it even more important for everyone to be able to have that time to discuss what do we want to do? Because grief robs people of emotional physical energy So you might want to listen your involvement as that person in the holiday activities In other words, don't expect too much of yourself and realize you're doing the best that you can That's good Also, you might want to keep in mind that well-meaning people Expect you to hide your feelings about grief and loss and but you should not ignore yourself to please others because you're not obligated to be cheerful Regardless of what anyone may say to you, but then I've also heard people say they've never felt lonely or Then when they're in a large group of people particularly during the holidays So, you know, if you're feeling really overwhelmed making an exit strategy can be a good thing Yeah I think consider spending time with close family and friends who you feel safe and comfortable around Maybe honoring your loved one's memory by setting aside some time to share stories or maybe lighting a candle in his or her memory Also, maybe making a donation in your loved one's name to their favorite cause whatever that might be And then some of people find something doing something for others helps them move away from the pain If you're able, maybe you could volunteer one could volunteer at a food pantry or shelter hospital retirement center They all usually welcome volunteers and maybe that could be part of a new holiday tradition But most of all I think it's important for people to be kind to themselves Know what your limits are give yourself permission to feel sad and also give yourself permission to smile and recall Von memories of past holidays with your loved one It's difficult again as we mentioned earlier to make it through this time of the year.
So the most important thing is once again, just be kind to yourself Yeah, makes a lot of sense. That's a good list I did see some of our volunteers recipients and donor families were also adopting other families and they were doing it as a family Project and they said that kind of helps them um shift gears and puts things into a better perspective, I guess, right? Right. So we appreciate you sharing.
We're gonna have more with Sally. Obviously here on the get-to-life podcast. Thanks for joining us. Thank you Joey in our community segment today.
Uh, we are talking about a special trip one of our donor families will be taking pretty soon It involves the rose parade, which is one of my favorite things to watch on tv around the holidays, right? Next week next week in the morning of new years. So our special guest joining us right now on the podcast is christen rober. Take christen Hi, we appreciate you joining us.
Um, we know that you soon will be going to california and we know it's for a special reason It's to honor your brother a hero. Tell us a little bit about matt wall sh well He was 21 years old when he passed away from a core accident and at that time We knew he would not survive from his injuries And so we fought the best way to celebrate his life and to kind of strategy into a blessing would be to give others a gift of life Which made us so so happy so we we had decided to donate his organs at that time and we did so and So now he is our hero and um, we try to live live that way You know and honor him every day in our lives and he was uh, he wrote too many He was able to save three lives and give sight to two others and enhance the lives of many many others to tissue donation So matt is going to be honored as a floor graph at the rose parade and uh what floor graph is It's kind of like a mixture of flower and plant particles It's a beautiful beautiful picture of that hero and one of my favorite events that i've been to Forlobot was being able to watch the families decorate the last few parts It's very very ornate very decorative and they send the floor graph back to the families So that they can decorate just the last few touches like the eyebrows and different things And uh, it's a memory i'll never forget and i kind of want to tap into that a little bit christen Can you tell me what it was like when you found out that he was going to be honored on a floor graph in the rose parade? We were we were in shock Greatly honored but mostly shock my mom tells us Laurie of when she received a phone call Um the person from loba had a check to see if she was still there because she just had no word So, um, we're just greatly greatly honored that he was chosen and and meant feeling of being proud of him for his his gift And that he's being remembered for that gift now christen i'm looking at the donate life luizianna facebook page those listening can go there But i'm watching um you guys complete this floor graph. I mean what was it like for you when you were able to see the floor graph for the first time Finish it.
Um, I see you and i'm assuming mom with a smile on your faces. I mean handsome handsome guy here Yeah, it was really exciting to see how well it came out in his likeness Um, and it was a very exciting feeling being able to finish that and knowing that we were part of that It's going to be part of that day and part of memories forever But to know that we had a hand in keeping it was amazing feeling it's a very special thing for us at loba We've been sponsoring now our families for the rose parade for a few years and and it is one of our favorite events to be able to Allow and help those families go to passadina and spend that time You know, it's going to be a fun time for you from from what i've heard from from people who've gone in the past and i actually want to know What are you excited? Are you nervous about going? Or very excited a little nervous because we know it's going to be emotional and maybe a little overwhelming But I think the overall tone is that it's going to be amazing and it's going to be um, there's so much love You know to be had by all with the feeling of happiness.
Um, I think definitely the most exciting thing happened to us in a while Well, we are going to be watching the rose parade from our televisions And we will be looking for that yellow framed floor graph of matt wash as he's in front of this nationwide audience helping promote donation And then i'm sure that you guys will be sending us pictures that we will also post on our facebook twitter and instagram pages as well But look we appreciate you guys sharing this with us this journey But you guys also got in the community and help promote donation as well. So it's like you guys are continuing to kind of pay it forward We try we really do. My mom more so than me. She's very involved.
I'm in a sudden impact program with a high school student She goes out and tells matt story Um, i'm pretty frequent based as i'm very proud of her and the work that she does and continue to that and as far as you know Me and my family we besides where mom does we just try to be advocates for organization and just try to spread the good news about it And encourage people as possible to sign up to the organ donors. How amazing I know that you guys will head out on December 29th. We will be watching from our television sets Just love the rose parade look for the donate life look for matt wash And then we can't wait to hear all about it when you guys return have a safe trip and have a great day. Thank you christen Now time to honor a hero.
We do this on every podcast and remember you can see all of our heroes on our facebook page lopa.org faces of donation But today we're highlighting a little cutie petudie someone mom calls her rock star and that is miss drew mayon. Yeah, glory On the morning of september 20th 2007 the lives of mai gwen jade and mion took a turn That was really unbelievable. They received a phone call from the principal at drew school She was 10 at the time and she had collapsed while she was in gym class So of course they took her to the emergency room to one of the local hospitals They realized that she had suffered an aneurysm And the course of the days events for their family for her brother brought both her brothers brock and luke and of course her parents We're just heartbreaking She was pronounced that day brain dead I remember personally Meeting jade and michael at that time. I was the lopa coordinator that went for her family support at the time And I remember seeing her pictures they had on the wall And she was such a beautiful as you mentioned a cutie petudie.
She was a beautiful beautiful girl You know when I talked to them about donation they had talked about it before it's something that they had talked about for themselves And their their answer was a simple one. They said it. Yes, absolutely. We we definitely want to do everything we can to save others lives Later she was able to give the gift of life to three different recipients and insight to two people Her mom said through the incredible incredibly difficult grieving months had followed lobe came and extended part of our family keeping us informed of the status of true recipients on the weekend of march 27 2008 the family prepared for jose a celebration of true's life It was her birthday weekend and surprisingly to them they received a letter on that weekend from her kidney and pancreas recipient steve And they were so excited about it, you know, and they talked about it for some time Michael and jade shared the joy of meeting steve by saying this Our new relationship with steve has touched our lives forever the common threats and interests of our families as well as steve's humility and greatness toward jose gifts Have supported our decision of being organ donors She and steve don't understand will be forever a light of our lives incredible and steve actually we had a rare opportunity for a live television interview and steve drove from out of state here to be with jade to talk about drew to talk about donation Which is amazing jade and her family continue to be advocates for donation doing anything and everything and joey are remember For one of our robblay runs for life.
We were trying to get the ingredients together for jumbo liam We couldn't find onions and rice and how are we gonna pay for it? And so we kind of put the word out we sent a text and said hey can anybody help us and jade said i'm on this And so she sent out a couple of texts you got some people to cover it and we had all the ingredients We needed for a large celebration of life at the robblay run for life So all these people with this incredible talent coming together to honor their heroes and to save more lives at this point in the podcast Let's go ahead and pause and say thank you to rockstar drew my own for the gift of life Answer time here on the gift of life. Yeah, lori this one's for you actually You know, i've been hearing from the times i've been out in the community or hospitals They say, you know, how do i get involved i'd like to i'm ready to get involved Who do i talk to do you guys have any requirements for it? I would love for you to join our team come on let's do this right i'm from cajun country You got that i tell you to um, but we try to make it as easy as possible So I guess the first stop would be lopa.org.
There's a huge orange volunteer tab So click on that put your information in that goes to the community educator nearest you So if you're in the Baton Rouge area that comes to me and then I let you know about everything going on So it could be music bingo it could be a race it could be talking at school talking at a church talking at a rotary club Those different kinds of things but we work with you maybe not ready to tell your story and you need some guidance with that We do that too. We try to make it as easy as possible We try to hit on your interests, you know, if we have more time at a classroom It's an informal setting that may be more comfortable for you So I get to know you a little bit and then we kind of work out those kinks and then we go from there And we try to save as many lives as possible you can do anything Also, you can help us on social media by sharing our stories promoting donation on your social media pages etc So please come join our team. Let's save lives together I would love for you to join our team Another episode of the gifted life has come to a close Joe number 20 is done in the books. There you go We like to thank our special guests.
Yes, absolutely We want to thank Kelly ran our CEO first of allowing us to put on this podcast But secondly for coming out of her comfort zone and coming on top low podcast here and and giving us some insight about You know the past about lopa and then kind of her involvement from the beginning and then a big thanks to Kristen Roberts It's gonna be an exciting time for her and her family next week when they'll be honoring her brother matt Walsh Hero to everyone here in the rose parade. You're gonna see his floor graph there I can't wait to watch the rose parade. That's one of my favorite parades each year to watch But I certainly love watching the donate life america float that comes on Yeah, watch for that donate life float and watch from matt Walsh's picture Remember you can go to facebook and you can see that floor graph before it is attached to that float and makes its way down in the rose parade It is December 25th. Happy holidays and merry christmas be thankful Love everyone.
Love your family. Share your feelings everyone. We talked to sally that's very important And go out and do something that you don't normally do for donation do it today Thanks for listening here on the gifted life