Gift of Life

 Hi friends, I am back with an insanely eventful week. Below are the details. We have one more week of this internship so thank you for following my story this summer. Thank you for reading!  Monday (July 31): Today I attended a didactic meeting on Quality assurance and the actions they need to take to follow up with tissue processing companies so that tissues can be released in order to help others. Quality Assurance may need to track down any missing medical files or cases in which the donor could have any diseases that were not identified in the medical and social history questionnaire. We also followed a chart review they had finished that morning. In organ cases, the chart review is relatively quick because they are life-saving transplants and everything that needs to be handled is handled prior to transplant. Remember in Week 1/2 I explained that tissue was regulated by the FDA? There are so many more details and background information needed to ensure that the bone and skin graf

Hi friends! I am back with another incredible week!! With only two weeks left of my internship with Gift of Life, I am feeling endlessly grateful, excited, and nostalgic about everything I have learned and experienced. It seems like time has just been flying by. This week was our last week out with Transplant coordinators and I learned so much it was insane. Read below for details! :)  Monday (July 24): Today was pretty cool. I went to a hospital I had not yet been to before, and interestingly enough, it is a smaller-sister hospital that is part of a larger hospital that works with a medical school I will apply to. It was a relatively short day, however; it was very educational. The Transplant Coordinator I was with and I  spent the first part of the day huddling with the healthcare team before the family arrived.  When the family arrived and the healthcare team followed up with them on the grave prognosis of their loved one, the family decided they wanted to withdraw medical intervent

 Hi Friends! I am back this week with some more incredible updates! I was able to go to the Eurofins serology testing lab, volunteer at Howie's House, become a Donation Chamption, and round some more at Temple University Hospital! See below for outlined details!  Monday (July 17): Today we spent time at the Eurofins serology testing lab where they test blood and tissue for infectious diseases prior to transplantation. Because tissue is regulated by the FDA, it is important to ensure that these donors are "clean". Meaning they are free from the general infectious diseases that would prevent you from giving blood (hep a-c, HIV, syphillis, zika, west nile, etc). For organ donation, you do not need to be "clean" given that these are life saving gifts, however, it is just as important for transplant surgeons to know what diseases the organs could be carrying so they might treat their recipient properly. We were able to see their most recent machine run. This machine

Happy Sunday! This week was extremely educational, emotional, and overall an incredible experience. I did write this blog post already, however, the system glitched and erased my entire post so I will work my hardest to make sure I complete this as detailed as before it was all deleted. Most of the photos in this post are from Monday at the Donor Care Center in Philadelphia.  Monday (July 10):  Today, I was called at 6:15am by the Transplant Coordinator (TC) in charge of dispatching us to the different hospitals this week. I arrived at the Donor Care Center at  a little after 8am and introduced myself to the Transplant Coordinator following the case. As we were waiting for the OR, I was able to observe the Transplant coordinator while she searched for homes for the gifts this patient would give for transplant. This patient was brain-dead due to anoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain).  When we went to the OR around noon, there were two medical students I was working around to see the reco

 Hi friends, I am back with another update on my incredible internship! This blog post will be much shorter than the previous one as it was a holiday week. Speaking of which, I hope you all had a happy Fourth of July! Below is the outline of my week!  Monday (July 3): Today I went into the office and worked on my project for a couple hours. I attained more data and expanded on my PowerPoint. I also read our packets on Essential Donor Testing and TC Family communication in preparation for our Didactic training with the Transplant coordinators this week. Next week I am going into the field with transplant coordinators to observe the entire process of obtaining authorization, collecting background information, and recovery of life-saving gifts! Tuesday (July 4): Happy Fourth of July! Today I spent the morning catching up with family via phone and updating them on my amazing experiences. I then followed those conversations by reading my packet on Brain Death, what it is, and how to explain

 Hello friends! Im back with another exciting week! I went to a Corn-hole for Corneas event and toured the ICUs of Temple University Hospital! Read below for more!  Monday (June 26): Today Francesca and I embarked on our journey to Temple University Hospital. Amidst parking confusion, crosswalks, and business clothes we finally found our location. We met up with Joe Paparo, Temple University's Hospital Services coordinator, and shadowed him for the first half of the day. We began in a conference room where he sent out his weekly email to the team updating and editing current cases that the Transplant Coordinators and himself are tracking. Then, we visited the Neuro ICU which was in a separate building adjacent to the main hospital. We just made a circle and said hi to some of the nurses. Part of the reason it is important for these Hospital Services coordinators to make their presence known serves as a reminder for nurses and physicians to refer any patients they may not have refe