This Thing Called Life

Episode 17: The Gift of Eye and Tissue Donation with Robert Winter

During episode 17 of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson speaks with Robert Winter, a man that has worked in the field of eye and tissue donation for over twenty-five years. Though it’s difficult, Robert and his team do their best to comfort grieving families while educating them on the benefits of donating!

 

Episode Highlights: 

• There is a lot of misinformation about organ donation that exists because of a mistrust of the healthcare system.
• Robert has been in the field of tissue donation for over twenty-five years.
• The medical field has been a strong interest of Robert’s for his entire life because it provides the opportunity to help people.
• Robert has noticed that everyone in his field shares a common interest in wanting to make a positive difference.
• The most life-saving gift for tissue donation is one of the human-skin graphs for burn victims.
• Jason Schechterle suffered third and fourth-degree burns as a police officer in Phoenix when his car exploded after getting hit.
• The details of Jason’s survival came down to seconds of circumstances and now he shares his story all over the country.
• Hearing the stories of burn victims and survivors gives people perspective on just how important tissue donation is.
• Danny Happy suffered his burn injuries as a ten-year-old and spent months in acute care, receiving over two-hundred feet of skin that saved his life.
• Robert and his team are approaching families on one of the worst days of their lives.
• Being able to express that tissue donations are going to help someone down the road is necessary when talking to families that have lost a loved one.
• Families who have lost a loved one are burdened with making a lot of decisions and dealing with the decisions of their loved one.
• The knowledge that their loved one is going to save someone’s life brings some sort of comfort to grieving families.
• There are many stories of competitive athletes being able to return to their respective sports as a result of tissue donations.
• AlloSource acts as step two of a three-step process by preparing tissue donations to be used in a surgical environment. 
• A disconnect exists between medical practitioners and the origin of tissue donations for their patients.
• Great joy can be brought to donor families by hearing back from those that have received the donation.
• It’s very challenging to deal with families who have gone through an extreme loss on a day-to-day basis.
• Sometimes, families refuse to donate regardless of the fact that their loved one made the decision to do so.
• Robert finds that knowing that people’s lives are being saved and dramatically improved is the most rewarding part of his industry.
• Focusing on the recipients and the donor families makes it easy for Robert to love his job.
• The goal of organ and tissue donation must be to educate as many people as possible.

3 Key Points:

1. Burn patients are very susceptible to infection and thermal regulation, making human-skin graphs incredibly vital to their survival.
2. Jason Schechterle and Danny Happy are both motivational speakers who survived their burn injuries as a result of life-saving tissue donation.
3. One of the difficulties with expressing the benefits of tissue donation to grieving families is that it could be a long time before the positive effects are felt from the donation.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter Cincinnati  | Website | Facebook| Instagram| Twitter | YouTube |
• Survivor Stories  |Jason Schechterle | Danny Happy
• AlloSource
• The American Association of Tissue Banks

This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 03- All things Kidneys with Lincoln Ware

Andi and Lincoln talk about National Kidney Donation Month on WDBZ 

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/ 

https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH 

513-558-5555

Episode 16: Is Living Organ Donation The Best Option? With Dr. Madison Cuffy

During episode 16 of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson speaks with Dr. Madison Cuffy, an Associate Professor of Surgery and the Kidney Director at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Cuffy has built trust-filled relationships with his patients throughout the years and loves nothing more than to see them live their lives to the fullest after getting their transplant. March is national kidney month!

 

Episode Highlights: 

• Dr. Cuffy started his medical journey back in 2002 during his residency, before doing a transplant fellowship at New York Presbyterian.
• Growing up in Brooklyn, Dr. Cuffy was first introduced to Cincinnati by Talib Kweli and Hi Tek.
• As a 14-year-old, Dr. Cuffy was volunteering in a hospital cleaning instruments.
• Even to this day, no one in Dr. Cuffy’s family has experience in medicine, nor any clue what a transplant surgeon does.
• Dr. Cuffy was born in the Caribbean and grew up with his great aunt in New York.
• One of the most common misconceptions surrounding organ donation is that the medical community will let you die.
• After being in transplant and seeing how one can help create life during a time of despair, Dr. Cuffy became an organ donor.
• The medical community is not out to harm organ donors for their organs, contrary to popular belief.
• COVID has disproportionately impacted the African American community, leading to a rise in a renewed mistrust of the medical community.
• It’s who passes on the information about medical issues like COVID that is important.
• Despite all the concerns and misinformation that has been passed along, Dr. Cuffy highly recommends getting the COVID vaccination.
• According to the statistics, on average, 22 people die every day waiting on an organ transplant.
• While most of his focus is on kidney transplants, Dr. Cuffy does work with all transplant organs.
• There is an access problem for people who need a kidney transplant and are on dialysis.
• Over the span of a year, Dr. Cuffy performs around 70 kidney transplants.
• During the pandemic in 2020, the transplant team was able to get recipients in and out with anyone contracting COVID.
• Dr. Cuffy facilitates living kidney donation as the best option to treat end-stage renal disease.
• Andi has noticed that people of color tend to shy away from sharing their donation needs with other people.
• Socioeconomic issues and disadvantages can make it more difficult for certain patients to share their stories.
• People who don’t want to share their stories need a donor champion to do it for them.
• There are different forms of literacy, so Dr. Cuffy makes sure his patients know that there is no stupid question.
• It’s important for patients to speak up about their questions to their doctor so that they don’t go get misinformation from another source.
• If your physician is too busy to answer your questions now or in the future, you may need to find a different provider.
• Dr. Cuffy feels rewarded by his job when he sees his patients experiencing life after their transplant.
• His grandmother’s advice to be who he is, even when things get tough, gets Dr. Cuffy through his hard days.
• Raised without his parents in Brooklyn, Dr. Cuffy knows first hand that you can do anything you set your mind to.
• Dr. Cuffy has always had an extra gear that has allowed him to outwork everyone around him.
• When he goes back to Brooklyn now, Dr. Cuffy gets a different kind of respect from the people he grew up with.
• Dr. Cuffy thoroughly enjoys going to J. Alexanders in Cincinnati because of the sheer amount of professional African Americans that go there.

3 Key Points:

1. While volunteering at a hospital with the hopes of staying off the streets as a 15-year-old boy, Dr. Cuffy had the opportunity to watch a kidney transplant up close, and that’s how he chose the transplant route.
2. Unlike in other cities that have multiple transplant programs with different surgeons, Cincinnati has a single transplant program where the doctors act as one unit.
3. Living donor kidneys last anywhere from 15 to 20 years, recipients don’t have to wait on a list to get one, and the quality is usually very good.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter  (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
• Dr. Madison Cuffy (website)
• University of Cincinnati Kidney Transplant 

This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 02

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.  

Episode 15: A Life of Dedication to Changing Lives with Paula Franckhauser

During episode 15 of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson speaks with Paula Franckhauser, a woman who has been in the fight for a long time but is now retiring from the kidney transplant game. Paula knows all things kidney and has dedicated almost half of her life to changing the lives of so many!

 

Episode Highlights: 

• Paula turned 65 recently and thinks that after over 20 years of service, it’s time for younger nurses to take over the fight.
• For the last 5 years, Paula has taken over the responsibility of handling the kidney transplant waitlist.
• Some people have to wait years on the kidney transplant wait list depending on their blood type.
• Paula feels as though she has become part of the families of those who are waiting on a kidney transplant.
• After working on the floor as a nurse and as a case manager for a few years, Paula fell in love with her role in the transplant office.
• Paula’s 30-year nursing career started out in long-term care but she has held a plethora of roles since then.
• When Paula first started at Christ’s hospital in Cincinnati, there was only one nurse.
• Most people are severely undereducated about how their kidneys work, thus leading to unhealthy habits.
• The morning after a transplant, people have color back in their eyes and a smile on their face.
• Many people don’t know how well they can do after a kidney transplant with only one kidney.
• People make the mistake of thinking that just because they don’t match their loved one, they can’t make a difference.
• The National Kidney Registration, NKR, offers a solution to a massive issue in a network that stretches across the country.
• Paula has enjoyed watching friendships evolve from kidney transplants between the recipients and the donors.
• Kidney donation programs are incredibly picky with living donors, but 20-years ago, there wasn’t enough known genetically.
• The biggest problem that non-compliant recipients have is that Medicare goes away after 3 years.
• If any complications come from the kidney transplant for donors, Medicare covers them for life.
• Paula has found an incredible amount of joy in making the phone calls to long-waiting recipients to tell them they have a kidney.
• For young nurses and doctors who are looking to join the transplant field, they need to get involved in their off-time.
• The Transplant Breakfast and Kidney Walks are great ways for young medical professionals to get involved.
• 2020 has taught everyone the importance of coming together as a community to lift each other up.
• One of the biggest myths surrounding healthcare is that medical professionals will not save a life if they are a registered donor.
• The communication between donation centers and hospitals has improved an incredible amount over the last 20 years.
• Paula, unfortunately, lost a patient at the beginning of her career but did everything she could to comfort his wife.
• When you are as involved in and connected with the lives of recipients as Paula is, a bond is formed forever.
• The Kidney Foundation is always accepting volunteers, so don’t be afraid to reach out.
• Through the pandemic, The Christ Hospital only slowed down a little with living donors but did as many overall as they ever do.

3 Key Points:

1. The education process around kidney function is massively underdeveloped, and Paula would love to establish better education starting in high school.
2. The parent-kidney donation program involves someone who doesn’t match their loved one but does match with someone else on the list and vice versa.
3. Medicare stops covering prescriptions after only 3 years, so many of the recipients who don’t work are forced to find jobs in order to afford their medicine.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
• The Christ Hospital

This Thing Called Life: Community Heroes 01

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.

Episode 14: From My Heart to Yours with Donna Jones Baker

During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson speaks with Donna Jones Baker who recently received the gift of life through the donation of a kidney and a heart. Donna has learned to appreciate organ donation and its ability to help save so many lives!

Episode Highlights: 

• February 14th is National Donor Day, a day to honor all those who have been affected by organ donation.
• Donna was originally born in Paducah, Kentucky and went to Murray State University.
• After getting married, Donna lived in Baltimore for 22 years before moving to Cincinnati to become the CEO of The Urban League.
• Had it not been for the heart attack that she suffered, Donna believes she would still be at The Urban League.
• Initially, Donna received a Z-pack for what she thought to be a cold or a flu.
• Donna was able to make it to the hospital after suffering from a heart attack where she was equipped with an LVAD.
• Doctors wanted to give Donna a heart transplant, but couldn’t because they discovered cancer on her kidney.
• After doctors removed her kidney, Donna was placed on the transplant list for a new heart and kidney.
• According to the numbers, people of color suffer disproportionately from the effects of COVID.
• The months between her kidney removal and kidney/heart transplant were very scary for Donna.
• Doctors feared that Donna’s remaining kidney would not be able to support her and that she would have to go on dialysis.
• The same doctor that fixed Donna’s LVAD performed her heart and kidney transplant.
• Donna had to be careful with the medications that she took because the heart and kidney don’t want the same things.
• With the help of her husband, Greg, Donna was able to make it through a transplant during a pandemic.
• Donna advises those going through a similar situation to try not to think about it all the time.
• The gifts of life and grandchildren keep Donna grateful for every day that she opens her eyes.
• Through the pandemic, Donna has remained in touch with her children and grandchildren via Zoom.
• Working in organ donation is a tough job, but one that saves many lives.
• Donna hopes to schedule a trip to Baltimore to visit her grandchildren once the pandemic is over.
• Right now, there are over 100,000 people in need of a life-saving transplant surgery.

3 Key Points:

1. After initially thinking she had the flu, Donna agreed to host a round table event on Friday the 13th. That following Sunday, she suffered a heart attack from Giant Cell Myocarditis.
2. Many African Americans decline to become organ donors out of a fear that if someone of note needed an organ, doctors would take it from them without consideration for their lives.
3. To stay in touch and grow with her family members, Donna has started a Sunday night Zoom Bible study.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
• Donna’s Story
• Urban League Of Greater Southwestern Ohio

Episode 13: Families Are The Focus with Betsy Morgan

During this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson speaks with Betsy Morgan, the Donation Support Services Trainer at LifeCenter. Betsy trains members of her team on how to approach families for donation interviews while remaining supportive in their time of need.

Episode Highlights: 

• Betsy began at LifeCenter as a Donation Support Specialist Coordinator back in 2015.
• In her role, Betsy and her team approach and support families during the organ donation process.
• Before coming to LifeCenter, Betsy was a nurse manager, something she attributes to her love of helping people.
• Betsy loves her job because she gets to see the good things in life, even though the rest of the world is chaotic.
• Sometimes the right thing to say is to say nothing; just showing support is something that people need.
• You can decide the right thing to say to a donor family based on where they are in their donation journey.
• People just want to be heard sometimes, so it can be as simple as picking up the phone and listening.
• With her previous work experience, Betsy knew about organs but didn’t know there were so many ways to donate.
• As technology and healthcare methods change and move forward, there are more and more ways to help those who need donation.
• The process of interviewing the families is a long and difficult one, but Betsy focuses on all the good that the gifts will do.
• Answering the interview questions can be a very difficult and arduous process but is necessary to ensure safe donations.
• During a past Donor Family Ceremony, Betsy comforted a crying woman that she had actually interviewed over the phone.
• Dealing with death every day is difficult but workers at LifeCenter are given purpose when making connections with families.
• It takes a high level of compassion and belief in the job to comfort people in their time of need.
• Conducting interviews over the phone, due to COVID, makes it more difficult to read emotions.
• Betsy must stay open-minded and understanding when approaching a family, especially over the phone.
• In such an emotionally taxing role, Betsy relies heavily on the support system at LifeCenter.
• Talking about and debriefing on the more difficult cases provides Betsy and her team with a form of relief.
• Teams that feel supported and encouraged tend to feel more confident and do better in their individual roles.
• When coming into such difficult and emotionally heavy conversations, it’s important to remain your authentic self.
• Though donor families will feel very alone, especially during a pandemic, there are always people/organizations out there to support them.
• Finding people that can relate to the process or pain can be a great way for grievers to find an outlet.
• Betsy made it her goal this year to simplify life and find the good amongst the sea of bad.

3 Key Points:

1. In a world filled with so much negativity and bad things, Betsy loves her job at LifeCenter because she gets to see so much positivity and good.
2. While the interview process is filled with difficult and uncomfortable questions for donor families, it must be completed to ensure that the organs being donated go to the right recipients.
3. COVID has forced Betsy and others in her position to learn how to have these talks over the phone where emotion is harder to translate.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)

 

Episode 12: Closing the Health Gap of Racial Disparity with Renee Mahaffey Harris

During this episode, host Andi Johnson speaks with Renee Mahaffey Harris, President and CEO of the Center for Closing the Health Gap in Cincinnati. Renee and the CCHG are working tirelessly to educate everyone on the hidden factors that contribute to the racial disparity in the health of the American population!

Episode Highlights: 

• Think about all the resources that you have available to meet all the needs in your life.
• Some people have to make a choice between necessities.
• CCHG works to close the health disparity that exists between races and socioeconomic classes in the Cincinnati area.
• According to multiple research studies over the last 40+ years, there is a disproportion of health amongst black and brown communities.
• COVID-19 has had a disproportionate effect on the black and brown communities.
• Last year, the pandemic and systemic racism combined to create a public health crisis.
• Renee has played a major role in the declaration of racism as a public health crisis in the Cincinnati area.
• Transportation planning is one example of a factor that contributes to systemic racism.
• The inhumanity of the murder of George Floyd sparked a movement in this country to fight systemic racism.
• Differences in police presence between BLM protests and the storming of the capital is a clear sign of systemic racism.
• Based on multiple studies, income has very little to do with one’s health outcome.
• A perception that black people have a higher threshold for pain has led to a disparity in prescriptions for black people.
• Systemic racism in this country can find its roots all the way back to slavery in the United States.
• Today, Cincinnati is the 5th most segregated city in America.
• Renee was actually told that she couldn’t run for class president when she was in 6th grade because she was black.
• Stress that is placed on black people by systemic racism plays a large role in their socioeconomic status.
• 2020 has taken the problem of systemic racism beyond conversation and into policy review and renovation.
• With such a small margin of profit, grocery stores will continue to locate in places that are easier for people to drive to.
• Early on, Renee did not want to be an organ donor because of a myth that perpetuated through the black community.
• Across the board in just about every area of today’s issues, there is a mistrust of the governmental system.
• CCHG has gathered information from black professionals in the health community in an attempt to garner more trust around the vaccine.
• Scientists were able to use information from the SARS epidemic to speed up the creation of finding a vaccine for COVID.
• Those that don’t believe there is racial disparity in the healthcare system simply need to look at the numbers from various research studies.
• Taking the bias out of the healthcare system has to start in medical school and medical training.
• CCHG started 16 years ago and is the only health disparity organization that both conducts its own research and houses its own data.
• Education is only as good as its ability to be understood by those it was created for.
• The “We Must Save Us” campaign is aimed at educating people around all the impacts of COVID-19.

3 Key Points:

1. Multiple studies conducted since the Reagan Administration have shown that black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by health problems.
2. How you treat people from other races is largely influenced by how segregated your childhood was and contributes to the systemic racism that we see today.
3. Many people that distrust the speed at which the COVID-19 vaccine was created need to know that scientists were given a head start by the information available from the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
• Center for Closing the Health Gap (website, WMSU Campaign)
• COVID-19 Resources

Episode 11: Find A Way To Grieve with Chamoda Palmore

During this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson speaks with Chamoda Palmore, a father to a son that was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident on his way to football practice in 2014. As a man, Chamoda knows that he might grieve differently than other people, but as someone going through his own journey of grief, he knows it’s important to find a way to grieve.

Episode Highlights: 

• Chamoda is a business owner that lost his son, Chamoda Kennedy-Palmore, to a motorcycle accident.
• Throughout his journey of grief, Chamoda has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions.
• It takes a lot of patience to get through the grieving process.
• Chamoda has leaned heavily on his faith, friends, family, and various support organizations.
• After meeting a woman who lost 2 children to a car crash, Chamoda was able to put things into perspective.
• Even 6 years later, it doesn’t feel real to Chamoda, it feels like someone is missing.
• Chamoda found it difficult to engage with other people, staying away from family functions and gatherings.
• If you have other children or people that depend on you, it’s important to find some level of normalcy again.
• Giving back through Chamoda’s Candy Cafe and Chamoda’s foundation has helped Chamoda heal.
• Right now more than ever, people all over the world need support and care from anyone that can give it.
• Chamoda’s 2 daughters and wife have all dealt with Chamoda’s death in different ways.
• When tragedy first strikes, it’s like the rainy season in April and it moistens up your heart to bloom in May.
• It’s important to plant the right things, love, support, passion, during the initial phase of grieving.
• Chamoda understood that it was a slippery slope to turn to a path of destructive behavior if grief is not handled correctly.
• For about 2 months after his son died, Chamoda couldn’t open the bible.
• Chamoda is comforted by knowing that as a tissue donor, Chamoda’s death was able to help many people.
• The local driver’s ed has incorporated Chamoda’s organ and tissue donation into its program.
• It’s hard for men to speak about their grief, but it’s important to find someone to talk to about their feelings.
• Men feel that they have to be so strong for the family but that doesn’t mean they can’t let it out somewhere else.
• Around the holidays, it’s important to find different ways to express your grief.
• Chamoda helped more than 30 people as a tissue and cornea donor.
• When his son died, Chamoda felt like an infant that just needed to be held.
• Have patience with those in your life that has lost someone; eventually, it will slow down, but for now, listen.

3 Key Points:

1. Chamoda likens his journey of grief to that of a baby’s journey of learning to walk. Right now, he is holding onto the banister as he guides his feet.
2. Giving back to other people out there that are hurting can help someone heal and get through their own grief.
3. Chamoda’s organ and tissue donation, now a part of their local driver’s ed video, has helped encourage others to become donors.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)
• Chamoda’s Candy Cafe (website, Facebook)
• What's Your Grief
• Grief In Common
• Refuge In Grief
• The Center for Loss