Hello and welcome to the gifted life podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and ideonation. I'm ReSteel. I'm Joey Boudreau, and I'm Sally Gentry, and we are so glad that you choose to tune in the gifted life that you see our new look. Oh, I love it.
I know so we are everywhere. We'll tell you how to find this, but we want to tell you what's going on on this podcast. Basically, we want you. That's right.
A bunch of stories, we want your pictures, we want everything. So we'll tell you how to turn that in so that we can share your story. First up Laurie, we've got a very special guest who's here in studio and so excited. I like your studio guests.
Yeah, okay. He's the CEO of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, our AOPO. Wow, and we love in studio guests. I'm excited for that.
So on our family support segment, we're going to talk with Fran today. She's a recipient from December the 23rd of 2015. She's very upbeat, very positive. She is just so thankful for her life-saving gift, and she's going to share with us her story, how she got to meet her donors family.
She's just fun. Can't wait to talk to her. We'll also honor a hero as we do in every podcast, and there's so much power packed into the gifted life. We want other people to hear it, right?
We're easy to find. Absolutely. You can find us on PocketCasts, iTunes, Google Play Now, or any of your favorite podcast apps. You got that down, Joe.
I like that. All right. We're just going along. And you can give us a call.
Okay. That number is 504-648-3477. She's kind of saying it a little bit. 504-648-3477.
Call us. Share your thoughts. We may use your audio as part of this podcast, which is what we want. We want it to be interactive.
Also, we're on social media. So Facebook, we're Donate Life Louisiana. A lot of what we talk about, you can find there. Twitter, Instagram, at Donate Life, LA.
So basically, we try to be everywhere. And we want you to help us spread the words just that easy. You guys ready? Yep.
Let's do this. In our recovery segment today, a special guest cell. Yes, indeed. In studio.
Absolutely. We love those. We have Ellie Ibo, and he is with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, which is weird for us to say because that's not how we commonly refer to Aobo. Yeah.
So Joey, this is your friend. Yep. Yep. I first met Ellie around five years ago when he was introduced as a CEO for Aobo.
Then I found out he's been in it for much longer than that. So welcome aboard, Ellie. Okay. Thanks so much.
It's a pleasure to be here in the studio with you all. Well, thank you for coming. It's always nice to have someone national that many of the other organ recovery agencies know. How long have you been in the organ and tissue donation field?
Joey, it's been about 20 years in total. I used to work at the OPO, the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium, which is another Washington Regional Transplant community. And I also worked with the Association of Tissue Banks for about five years to it. So all total about 20 years.
What got you into the field? You know, I started out my career in life working in research at the National Institutes of Health at the Heartland and Blood Institute. And a colleague of mine applied to the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium. And eventually got accepted as a coordinator.
And so I heard about it and learned about it from him. That was made of action. So you've been in it like ground roots all the way up to the CEO of Aobo. That is fantastic.
Let's talk a little bit about Aobo. Can you tell us a little bit about Aobo and how it got started? Well, Joey, it started back in 1984. I wasn't around at that time.
But from what I understand, like most associations, it was a small group of individuals in the same field who came together and saw the need to share information and to be unified when it came to things such as advocacy and so on. And so they formed the Association. It was then called the Association of Independent Organ Procurement Agencies. It only included the OPOs that were independent OPOs.
They later changed the name to the Association of Organ Procurement Organization so that they could include those OPOs that were hospital based. So how have the functions available changed over the years? You know, I think that they've grown dramatically in the areas of business benefits and knowledge transfer. As you can imagine, Joey, the advocacy portion of the Association was probably the most important to begin with.
But as your organization grew, the understanding or consistency in knowledge in the field and sharing that knowledge across all OPOs was really important. Back in 2008, under Tom Bohn, the Association created a strategic plan built on three foundation pillars of business benefit, knowledge transfer, and advocacy. And so it's been on those pillars that each successive strategic plan has been built determining what the goals and strategies and objectives for the organization would be. So how does it come down to reach us here in Louisiana?
So, Lori, OPOs' mission is to help our members maximize the availability of organs and tissues for transplantation and to enhance the quality, the effectiveness, and the integrity of the donation process. The vision, of course, is to save as many lives as possible and if possible, and deaths on the waiting list. And as we all know, there's approximately 123,000 people on that waiting list waiting for an all important organ to save their lives. So, Lori, you asked about an example of some of the things that OPO does.
In terms of knowledge transfer, the Association puts on a series of different meetings for its members. We have individual meetings for the different councils, a meeting for the people in OPOs who's disciplined as human resources, who's disciplined as finance, who put on a major meeting for those individuals for all the OPOs so that they can learn the latest information and perform their responsibilities better. Lori, it's something, especially from a knowledge transfer standpoint, something that I've been able to benefit or we have at LOPA quite a bit. You know, we get to go to these meetings, like you mentioned, the councils, I'm part of three different councils, but we're able to share, you know, it gives us a conduit of sorts so that we can share information from one, especially best practice information from one OPO to another to another so that we can hopefully one day reach that goal of ending the deaths on the waiting list.
Sally knows too, so Sally's in the field of donor family services. And so we have a council meeting, there is a council for donor family services and they meet as well in a major meeting and all importantly in our annual association meeting, which is coming up this June, the week of the 19th in Austin, Texas. And at that meeting, we will have sessions for all disciplines, but divided then to specific responsibilities of the people that work with OPOs. Great.
And I remember that information just flowing in. Here's how we're going to do it. Here's what we learned from AOBO. And then Sally and I were talking before the podcast, you guys even go step further.
Yes, you do work with Congress and you do legislation. Right, right. So you're absolutely right, Sally. So as I mentioned, one of those three pillars is advocacy.
And so when there are regulatory or legislative issues that relate to or have something to do with organization, then we'll communicate and we'll try and work with members of Congress or the regulators at CMS or other agencies under HHS. Help improve the processes by which OPOs do their work. So do you have lobbyists that work on your behalf to advocate? Like most associations, we do have a consulting firm that helps us with those efforts.
Yes. You know, Ellen works more, of course, with the federal level. But even with our state level, it helps us to be able to enact certain laws like the UAGA, you know, and things like that, where it has a benefit on those on the waiting list and on our families. So we see it.
You know, it's been a huge help having AOPO on our side help us pursue the hurdles that come with, you know, advocating for our condition donation. So Sally, you may remember that recently vascular composite aligrapes became designated as organs and CMS as opposed to the FDA. And so AOPO and its brothers and sisters and the other associations, AST, ASTS and others worked with Congress and HHS to help make that transition possible. And so now vascular composite aligrapes are designated as organs.
VCA or vascular composite aligrapes means those types of recoveries where they're removing hands and transplanting hands or doing a face type of transplant. That's what we talk about when we refer to VCA or vascular composite aligrapes. Yeah, Ellen, we actually had a face transplant. We had Richard Norris.
He was our first in studio guest that we've had. He came to explain a little bit about his journey through the process. Well, I also would like to talk about just a little bit about the donor family council. I think something that was very helpful for us in particular is that when I first began this program 16 years ago, there was limited information as far as any type of standards.
Perhaps it was none. Let me put it that way. And so over time, as working with the donor family council, I worked with different individuals many years back that we were able to implement some standards. So now across the board where other departments have these standards due to the fact it's much more regulated.
This is a little bit more esoteric, if you will, in family services that now we do have standards that we adhere to and it makes it more family friendly as far as making sure that us and other OPOs are delivering services that are needed and that can be measured. So when you're talking about the metrics and how do you measure what you're doing and where you're getting to? I think that's really important for us on this end also. Sally, you bring up a really great point.
As I mentioned, when I read off our mission of enhancing the quality effectiveness and integrity of the donation process, AOPO has a voluntary accreditation program that is comprised of a number of standards, and they're not just for donor family services. Those standards apply to all the different disciplines that an OPO is responsible for, whether it's administrative or procurement, safety, finance and so on. There's a number of standards that just about cover every discipline that an OPO is responsible for. And those standards continually evolve over time, raising the level of the performance and increasing as the mission states, the effectiveness and integrity and the quality of the OPOs.
And I think it also then enhances, if you will, the professionalism of the different disciplines that are involved. Absolutely Sally. I think that the professionalism within our field has continued to increase over time. And I think it's something that our members are very proud of, that they are accredited, that accreditation, the compliance with those standards is very important.
Well, and I think too, what's very helpful for our donor families in particular is that we now know that when we are delivering our services after the recovery, we know that there are certain things that we must adhere to that will be beneficial for them, not just for us, but for the family themselves. And if we're going to be true advocates for our family's post donation, then we need to have some specific guidelines that can help us do what we need to do. That's what's best for the families involved. So the process for an OPO to become accredited is no small endeavor.
It takes a lot of preparation and it requires that the OPO maintain those levels of performance and the responsibilities or the criteria of those standards continuously day after day, month after month, year after year. And every three years, the OPO has an onsite survey where surveyors come in to verify and confirm that they're compliant with all of those standards. And if they're not, then they'll have to go through a corrective action plan. So it's a very serious endeavor to be accredited.
And right now, 57 of the 58 OPOs are accredited. They go through that process of every three years of review. And that last OPO is probably, we hope, soon going to pursue the accreditation as well. I can remember back when there were quite a bit of OPOs that were not accredited.
So it's certainly a testament to AOPO and to the Oregon Procurement Organization themselves to raise their standards to meet the expectations to be accredited. It's a very important thing for us. I know at LOPA, you know, as well as many of our colleagues from the other OPOs. So I really do think that that's a credit to you guys and then the Oregon Recovery Agency is to raise their standards to meet the expectations.
For those donor families and for those potential recipients so that no one dies on the waiting list. I think you're right. And the beauty of the whole process is those standards, the improvement of those standards is actually driven by the membership as they see things changing, the importance of changing with the change of time or the change of times with different technologies or different information. The standards continue to evolve and become better and stronger with time.
And as far as LOPA, I'm just going to ask for strong standing, right? LOPA is strong standing. Absolutely. Good.
And so your thoughts on this podcast, our goal is kind of to follow your knowledge pillar and share. Stories from across the country from here in the state as well. So your thoughts on just this podcast in general? The podcast series that LOPA has developed is really a fantastic program.
And I've been talking to the team here at LOPA about what it took to put it together. And I can see the value beyond what you're doing with just the local community and the local community here within New Orleans and Louisiana, but beyond that. And so we're looking to work with LOPA to see if we can't do something a bit more national. Awesome.
Great. And that was our Seal of Approval. I was going to say that. Remember this episode.
We appreciate you being here. We know that you have a lot on your plate, obviously. So thank you very much. And if you want to find your region's OPO in the US, all you have to do is visit AOCO's website and that's AOPO.org.
In our family support segment today, a special guest, a recipient who had quite a meeting not too long ago. Sally has the details. Absolutely. This is Fran.
And I'm so pleased that she wanted to come on and talk with us about what her experience has been like. So Fran, we're just going to kind of turn it over to you. And if you would tell us what led to your needing a transplant and a little bit about what happened afterwards. Certainly, the people that make up LOPA, I feel very honored, I was diagnosed with liver cancer in May and have surgery on the 28th of May.
The doctor came in on my post op and told me that usually he gives patients options, but I only had one. That the cancer was very aggressive. Plus I had a liver of a small child. And I only had the one option was to go too fast-track to transplant.
And he asked me if I had a problem. I said no. I said, but I do have a problem at my age. I'm 69.
I said for me to receive an organ that someone younger than me should also be able to receive if we're the same match. And he quickly explained to me the process of organ donations and how the organs are, how the recipients are decided upon. And he also reassured me that the size of organ that I needed, all children and youth do not go on waiting lists like adults do. And they are automatically given the gift that they needed.
So if an organ was possible for me to receive, my name would be on it. Well, I believed that this was my journey in life and I truly gave it to God. I was called two times prior to the time that I received my gracious gift. And on the 22nd of this last December 2015, I was watching the news early in the morning and heard a little news clip about accidents that occurred in a function parish.
And I've hour and a half later, two lane calls. They had an organ and that I was a primary. They explained to me how they recovered the organs and how when a person is so selfless or a family is so selfless to give this precious gift of life to others that every possible gift from that person is given. They explained to me all of the procedures of the transplant.
Well, mine was a total miracle. My transplant surgery was much shorter than the average. I had no complications. I was just a blessing from God.
God had me in his hands and with these wonderful talented doctors. And I was driven to get to Loca and to write my letter of gratitude. And it took me several days to get all my thoughts together. And I'm kind of lengthy and talking and writing and so forth.
My children helped me consign, sit down and make it sound very much intelligent. And I sent my letter off. And then I received the absolute most exciting news that my donor family wanted to talk to me. I had a conversation over the phone with a mom and a dad that was unforgettable for me.
This was a 17 year old child that had just got his driver's license six months prior and unbeknownst to his parents, he had put on his driver's license that he wanted to be a donor. He had graduated school early to join the military and this was their only son. And when they got the call and they got to the hospital, the doctors informed them that he had passed, but they were keeping him on life support because he wanted to be a donor. And the parents were really shocked but also very, very proud of their son.
And of course they wanted to be on his wishes. And so five very grateful people like I had a chance of life. You know, we also want you to tell us about how you were able to meet your donor's family at the butterfly release. Oh, yeah.
And this might kind of tear here, but oh, yes, absolutely. So we had this wonderful conference conversation between myself and the mother and the father. And this wonderful family is the Washington family from the Poganville, Louisiana. My hero's name is Devron Washington.
He was 17 and a wonderful young man. And to be able to make a very mature decision of being a donor. And it definitely was something that the parents had not discussed as a family, but this was his decision and they decided to fulfill his wants and what he wanted to do. And so we had corresponded numerous times and Ms.
Washington called me and invited me. I was still in the stage of not being able to get too much out in public and protecting my wonderful gift. I call it my 24 gold that I care. And so I was still protecting my gift and being very cautious to get around people.
And Mrs. Washington graciously called me and asked me if I would like to attend a donor memorial service at the LaDelaic Hospital. And of course I was ecstatic. And my husband and I went and I received my special pin that says that I'm a recipient.
And met this most wonderful precious family. The father, the mother, the two grown stepsisters, a aunt and uncles, a grandmother, a grandfather. At that time they all lived in Tippito. At D.
Ronald was a freshman at Tippito High School. The same time my granddaughter was a freshman at Tippito High School. And it just seemed like that we were a piece of tapestry and we were all woven together. The memorial service literally took my breath of way to see how the hospital and Lopa honors the donors and the donors families.
And the father was so gracious. Within the ceremony one of the most special parts of it is that they give a member of the donors family a live butterfly to release in the Gordon at the LaDelaic Hospital. And there's a wonderful story about the butterfly that everyone needs to look up. And the father wanted me to release the butterfly.
And for me to come up with him to receive it from the lady from Lopa. And we went out and we released the butterfly and the little butterfly, the daddy said, acted just like D. Ronald would. He hit the little butterfly, flew down, settled low on a little flower.
And all of a sudden it flew back up to the top of the bush and then it soared to the sky. And the daddy said, that's Monday. And he was by Shobo and he made up his mind to do something. He did it.
And I have that child spirit in me. And we will live a life together. Oh, Fran, that's wonderful. And I will fulfill, I hope, some of the dreams that this wonderful child had.
And the father turned to me and he said, and he called me Fran, which I love. And he said, I want to tell you that looking at you makes me know why God put D on this earth is to do what he's doing. And I told him, I said, Mr. Washington, I said, D spirit is on earth in everyone that was lucky enough to receive this wonderful gift.
And I said, and he's here and he's in heaven looking at smiling at all of this. And I just cannot tell anyone really how a person feels when you have received such a gift that someone so selfishly thought of someone else in their most dreaded time of grief. For parents to lose a child and then they were able to overlook their grief and to give freely of what their son wanted them to do. And I urge everyone to really take it this to your heart and think about truly leaving a legacy.
I realize that everyone here on earth is put here for a reason and God had our journey planned for us. And if we don't think we achieve on earth, we can always achieve after we're gone because we can give the most important thing there is. And that's love and that's life. Thank you all so much for letting me share my story and I truly thank you.
Well, I had the honor of being at Our Lady of the Lake and there was this man and he had the biggest smile. And so I went out to him and I said, how are you? He said, I am great. And he said, can I tell you something?
I said, yes. And he said, my son, the Ronald. And I said, yeah. And he said, he saved her life.
He says, isn't that great? And I said, yes. And so I had the biggest smile too. So it was just amazing to watch all of that and then to hear you, you know, just be so grateful.
And I know that we'll get you volunteering in our area and telling the story more and more. But right now we know Deronald Washington is a hero and saved five lives, including the life of this man, Johnson. Thank you, Miss Fran. Thank you Fran.
Now time to honor a hero as we do in every podcast. Yeah, Laura, today's hero that we'll be honoring is Mike Dody. And I've seen a lot of information in the Baton Rouge area regarding Mike in the Livingston Parish News. Yeah, I'm going to read his story now.
It's from his daughter Lisa. She also works at the Livingston Parish News. Mike ran that local paper. But it says, my father, Mike, died March 3, 2016.
He was a reporter, a photographer, and the editor of the Livingston Parish News in Denham Springs, Louisiana. And for those who know him, they really call him a historian for Livingston Parish. Lisa goes on to say, my mother made sure that every part of my dad would live on through the people he could help after his death. He was inspired to be an organ donor by Irish parish corner, Dr.
Ron Co. Just like Dr. Co. My father's giving nature and integrity had new limits.
Every decision he made was out of love for others and never himself. Underneath a tough exterior was the kindest and most giving man I've ever known. I find myself becoming overwhelmed each day as I remember something special he did for his family and community. He also loved all animals and rescued many dogs, cats, even turtles.
Spiders had nothing to fear for my father as he would carefully place them outside if he saw one inside his home. That is something I didn't know about Mike. He wasn't just my father. He was my mentor and my teacher.
He was also my boss. I followed in his footsteps to write and take those four of the Livingston Parish News. Looking at his empty desk behind my own is difficult, but I know that is where he would want me to be. He would want me at work writing another story.
I can hear his voice telling me to push myself. How could I possibly deny the man who gave me everything? How could I deny the man who gave to everyone? That is in honor of Mike Dody, hero.
And I have talked to Lisa. I can feel that emotion. But that whole family is so proud that he is a hero and they want to tell that story. They want more people to learn about his legacy.
Something neat that did happen after this story was written and it was published in Livingston Parish News. They shared it on social media as well. But Dr. Koda Parish Corner came back to the Dimmspring school on us.
I remember there. They talked about Mike's gifts about his story. They shared little stories remembering this amazing man. At this meeting, one of Mike's co-workers, John, said I was not signed up to be an organ donor.
I was not. But today, I will. I'm going to do it in honor of Mike, which is pretty neat. John called me today because I was on my way for this podcast and they want to do more about donation.
They want to share the word about this podcast and they want the Livingston Parish News to be a partner when it comes to making life happen. Something that is just incredible. Incredible. All in honor of hero Mike Doey.
Absolutely. And if you want to see more of Mike or other heroes, you can look us up on lopa.org, our website. Just click on the heroes tab. Let's pause and say thank you to Mike for the gift of life.
Question and answer time here on the Gifted Life Podcast and Joey, this one's for you. Following Transplant, is there a set timeline to return to normal daily activities? Well, that's a great question. I get it asked quite often.
And it really depends on how sick you may have been prior to the Transplant itself, which organs are transplanted. How many comorbidities are other illnesses that you may or may not have had? But you guys were first hand account witnesses to an amazing lady who bounced back to beyond daily activities just recently. Yeah.
So Wendy Lipsi, she likes to be unique, right? She does. She was one year post-transplant and she received a kidney and a liver. So she was in a coma a year ago.
She was given 72 hours to live. And then what did we see? Oh my gosh, the energy and just her ability to share her story. It was just incredible.
Yeah. So she took part in a dancing event, a dancing competition in the Baton Rouge area, but she did it to prove to herself that she could do it to prove to everyone that there is life after transplant. And she was just the proudest disco duck. Do you know disco duck?
Joey? Is that out of your? Okay. So it was amazing.
So donate life, Louisiana. You have to check that out. We put it on all of our social media sites, but quite the transformation and we had a chance to talk to Wendy. It is.
Lori and Sally here. We're at the P. Mac. Wendy was just dancing for donation.
What's that amazing? It was absolutely amazing. And from her to talk about being a liver and kidney recipient and the crowd was so excited. I thought she put on a show.
She certainly did. And everyone just erupted. They were laughing and they were clapping. I thought it was absolutely wonderful.
Oh my goodness. So you just built this over. How do you feel? I am elated.
I'm excited. This is over. It's been exhausting, but it's been fun journey. I'm so glad I was able to live and live my life to the fullest and prove to everybody that there is life after transplant.
Great. Now Sally, you're just talking. This is a year post transplant. So here we go.
She was given 72 hours to live. She was in a coma. And then tonight, what did you see? Oh my gosh.
The transformation was amazing. And the energy that you put forth and for you to talk about your story is just fantastic. What a great way to share what donation means to you. I'm just grateful to be here and I'd love to work that y'all do getting other people to sign up to be organ donors.
It's such an important job. Y'all do a great job. It's just, it's a selfless gift. And I'm so lucky that I was able to receive a transplant.
And you are an inspiration. I just try to do my best and get back to the community because they've helped me so much. It's important to me. I'm still smiling from that event.
Me too. Me too. And I like the disco duck. I want to go out and get some yellow.
It's amazing. And we're still seeing the effects from that because folks want to interview her about donation. Her son is getting more involved because of her transplant sharing his story on his level. Just the ripple effect from that.
And there are most recently. Luke and Wendy's on the Sunday Journal. Yeah. Talking about what she had done and shared her story.
Yeah. Local folks trying to find her to learn more. And that's what we try to get out there. And she did.
So go Wendy. And maybe we need to take dance lessons from. Joey, you know, she was looking out. I can do some Cajun dancing.
I love it. Well, look, if you have a question, you can send that to us at info at lowba.org or always call us please. Absolutely. You can call us at 504-648-3477.
We look forward to hearing from you. And we may play your message on the podcast. Do it today. Okay, guys, another episode of the gifted life in the books.
That's right. Yeah. Good one. We want to definitely give thanks to Elling Ibo who came all the way from Virginia, CEO of AOPO to come down to our podcast and share all the good things that AOPO is doing.
And we also want to thank Fran Johnson for sharing her story. She's a very uplifting, upbeat sort of person and had wonderful things to say about her transplant and her doctors and her donors family. What a great story to share with folks. Yeah.
And I can't wait to work with her. She's going to be volunteering out in the community and talking about people in the community and trying to get them to think donation in a positive way. Wendy Lipsey, we talked about her and her dancing event, which was still amazing. Like we were still smiling.
I didn't want to take dance lessons. Joey. I'll try. Okay.
I didn't think we were going to talk about that. You know, Wendy made it look easy, but everybody in a filled P.M.A.C. heard about donation. People outside, I mean, this is spilling over and we talked about that ripple effect, which is amazing.
And that's what we want to encourage you to do. We want to challenge you to do something that you don't normally do to help make life happen. Do it today. Okay.
Good day.