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This Thing Called Life is a podcast about acts of giving, kindness, compassion, and humanity. Host Andi Johnson, will introduce you to powerful stories about organ, eye, and tissue donation from individuals, families and front-line health care teams, whose experiences will hopefully inspire you and remind you, that while life is hard and unpredictable, it’s also beautiful. We hope this podcast serves as a catalyst for you to register to become an organ, eye, and tissue donor.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
Episode 30: Leaders Driving Awareness Of Kidney Donation with Debbie Hayes
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
Tuesday Sep 28, 2021
During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks to Debbie Hayes. She is a healthcare leader in Cincinnati, and specifically she leads a number one ranked hospital in the Cincinnati region. Tune in to hear her experiences and perspective on kidney donation.
Episode Highlights:
- Debbie began as a nurse at Christ Hospital. She worked her way up to being CEO, also led the Board of Directors at LifeCenter Organ Donor Network for 9-10years.
- She started her career 34 years ago as a student nurse aide. The one thing that always amazed her about this organization is that you are given opportunities to grow and develop your talents.
- The pandemic was one of the most challenging times in the history of healthcare, but it has also been one of the most rewarding times. Because of the extraordinary efforts of an incredible team of people working they have still kept that mission of the organization at the forefront of everything that they do despite every challenge.
- “We are definitely grateful for all of our hospital partners throughout our service area who are able to facilitate organ, eye, and tissue donation”, says Andi.
- Many people who have organ failures of any kind are not able to fully experience what life is all about,which is why Debbie is passionate about this.
- Andi inquires, during the pandemic, “Did that affect patients waiting for kidney transplants at Christ Hospital?”
- One of the trends that she has noticed during her time at the Life Center is that living kidney donation continues to increase. Debbie explains her thoughts about why we are seeing more people making that choice to be a living kidney donor.
- Andi had the opportunity to interview a young woman who was actually waiting for a kidney, and she was listed at Christ, and she just could not say enough about what a positive experience has been with her team there.
- There are probably a million-plus surgeries that occur in the country requiring donor tissue, which is very interesting.
- Andi recalls a story about a young woman who was a volunteer and ambassador, and she has been waiting for a kidney for about three years, and unfortunately, she passed away. But she was able to be a cornea donor, and it just meant so much to her husband and young daughter.
- Debbie talks about who/what experience has helped shape her into the leader she has become.
- Andi asks Debbie to give advice to someone who is just starting out in their career in healthcare and may be inspired to lead a healthcare system down the road.
3 Key Points:
- Debbie shares how she maintains the passion for the work that she has been doing. She was recently named CEO of the Christ Hospital after serving as interim for a period of time, and just as an outsider looking in, it seems like health care leaders don’t tend to stay put with this same place for so long. She shares what it is that kept her at Christ all of this time.
- During the pandemic, things at the LifeCenter were quite dramatic. Debbie talks about the changes they have had to undergo during this time to attract people to sign up to be donors.
- There are about 750,000 people a year in the United States that have kidney failure. If we could get a transplant for every single one of those patients when they needed it, wouldn’t that really make an impact in the United States?
Resources Mentioned:
- LifeCenter | website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Twitter
- Andi Johnson website |LinkedIn
- Organ Donation Website
- https://www.donatelife.net/nmdam/
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 14: Its National DMV Appreciation Month
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Its National DMV Appreciation Month
This month is National DMV Appreciation Month and we want to thank and show our appreciation of our DMV partners and their dedicated employees across the country. They are a critical component of creating awareness and registering the public to become organ and tissue donation and we want to take this time to say thank you.
Community Heroes is a special extension of This Thing Called Life’s podcast. In this series we talk to community leaders, share important information about organ and tissue donation and honor those who have been instrumental in saving lives through the gift of donation.
Resources:
https://lifepassiton.org/who-we-are/leadership/
https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
513-558-5555
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Episode 29: A Lifetime Of Dealing With Kidney Disease with Karyn Frost
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
Tuesday Sep 14, 2021
During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks with Karyn Frost. This Thing Called Life introduces you to powerful stories about organ, eye, and tissue donation from individuals, families, and health care teams whose experiences will inspire you and remind you that while life is hard, unpredictable, and imperfect, but also beautiful. Tune in to hear Karyn’s story!
Episode Highlights:
- Karyn is living a very normal life. She and her husband of over 20 years just dropped off their oldest at a college. However, a part of Karyn's story has shifted some things for her.
- At Ohio State, Karyn met her husband, Damon Frosty, who is from Cincinnati. They have two children, two daughters, one as Andy mentioned, is a freshman at Tennessee State University in Nashville and the second one is a junior in high school at Indian Hill High School.
- When Karyn was a sophomore in college, she was diagnosed with lupus. It can impact many different organs in the body, and she was lucky enough that lupus impacted her kidneys.
- Karyn's kidneys were not functioning properly, but they weren't terrible or in need of dialysis or a transplant; It was just one of those situations where they said, "we are going to watch this."
- Andi asks, "Did your doctor at that time talk about the possibility of needing a transplant at some point?"
- Andi inquires, "You mentioned a family history of diabetes. Did anyone in your family ever need a kidney transplant because of diabetes?" Karyn affirms, her father received a kidney donation 15 years ago. It lasted for about five years, and then he had to go back on dialysis, but he did receive a kidney transplant.
- There are a lot of things you have to do after you receive a transplant which some are not prepared for. There are other people who can't get a transplant for financial reasons because that is a big part of it. You have to be able to afford the medication, and Medicare doesn't cover everything.
- Karyn has been on dialysis since May 2018, and honestly, she should have been on dialysis since 2016 because that is when her doctor noticed that her blood work in her physical exams and the biopsies indicated that she needed to start dialysis.
- When you have a certain level of toxins in your body, your body just decides if your kidneys can't get rid of it, we are going to get rid of it one way or another, says Karyn.
- Karyn has a lot of people around to support her; between immediate and extended family and people in organizations that she is a part of.
- Most of the people on the kidney and organ donation lists who are waiting for transplants are people of color. So, we need to have the organizations that were part of be supportive and joining the fight, says Karyn.
- Karyn has heard people say that they are not going to save her because they want her organs. She is interested in the statistics on how many African Americans agree when they are renewing their license to be registered.
- Andi asks, "Do you think that part of the issue with chronic kidney disease is that it's one of those conditions where you know it is there, but if it is not really impacting your day-to-day life?"
- As young people, we are naturally more self-centered, and she is much more focused on helping others.
- Karyn wanted to tell her story to get awareness for herself but also to get awareness for other people.
- Andi asks, "If someone is interested in being tested to be your kidney donor, how might they go about that?"
3 Key Points:
- Karyn's doctor mentally prepared her for what she was dealing with today, so it wasn't like a shock. And one day, he just said, "Hey, you are going to do dialysis. He did a good job of preparing me for it."
- Karyn shares details about her body's way or your kidney's way of saying help. Her kidneys were not functioning, so all those toxins stayed in her body anytime she ate or drank anything. They weren't being filtered out.
- "If you could tell your younger self, having a great time at The Ohio State University and also just starting to realize that there are some medical issues that are going to be a part of your life, what would you say to that, Karyn?" asks Andi.
Resources Mentioned: