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This Thing Called Life is a podcast dedicated to acts of giving, kindness, compassion, and humanity. Host Andi Johnson introduces you to powerful organ, tissue, and eye donation stories from individuals, families, and front-line healthcare teams. These stories are meant to inspire and remind you that while life can be challenging and unpredictable, it’s also incredibly beautiful. We hope this podcast inspires you to connect with our life-saving and life-healing mission.
Episodes
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
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://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson talks with Sarah Kepf to continue the series on “The Donation Process From The Lens of The OPO” where she has been taking listeners through step by step how the donation process works and all of the different departments and people involved within the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO). If you want to know more about how the gift of life comes to be through donation, tune in now!
Episode Highlights:
- Andi reviews the previous speakers in this series of exploring the process of donation through the OPO- Organ Procurement Organization.
- The Process begins in Donation Support services with donation coordinators as the following step. There are also the family services coordinators, organ recovery specialists, and tissue recovery technicians. Andi has interviewed people in each of these departments - if you missed it be sure to check the episode list!
- Organ, eye, and tissue donation is deeply collaborative. It takes a community of hospitals and staff, transplant centers, the OPO, sometimes the coroner, and funeral homes.
- Did you know that a donor can have an open casket? Andi says, “The body of a donor is treated with the utmost care and integrity.”
- The Quality Assurance Department is critical to the donation chain. They ensure that the OPO is compliant in the recovery process as well as all policies are correct. They work closely with regulatory agencies to make sure that the organization is working in line with them.
- Sarah Kepf introduces herself. She has been with Life Center for 11 years; She started as a tissue chart reviewer and is now the Quality Assurance Manager.
- Fresh out of nursing school Sarah joined The Life Center. She shares how she journeyed through her career to where she is now.
- Andi asks Sarah to talk about The Quality Department’s role in the donation value chain.
- Sarah’s department works closely with auditors and surveyors from a regulatory standpoint.
- There is also a safety standpoint of the Quality department; Sarah is the safety officer. If an event occurs, she is interviewing staff members or she is testing different incidents.
- Sarah says they are also heavily involved in process improvement which is up and coming to ensure that the organization is running as smoothly as possible and staying up to date with any new changes.
- The Quality department started with two people and they now have eight.
- Sarah talks about how they continue to stay true to the mission of enhancing lives and honoring all in the very important process they follow.
- Andi asks Sarah to give examples of incidents that she may have to investigate.
- If an error occurs it is a chance for improvement. The other departments have an understanding of how Quality is improving work for everyone.
- How can someone get involved in the quality department? Sarah shares that it is beneficial to have a medical background as well as attention to detail and ability to critically think.
- Andi asks Sarah what is most challenging about her role.
- Healthcare is ever-changing so Quality really has to stay on top of changes and who the changes will impact as it could be one department or could trickle down to another as well.
- Sometimes people question how regulated organ donation is. Andi and Sarah discuss myths people believe. Sarah brings up how they have laws that heavily regulate everything.
- If you are interested in life center career opportunities or becoming a donor, you can check at https://lifepassiton.org/
3 Key Points:
- Organ, eye, and tissue donation takes a community working together. Hospitals and their staff, transplant centers, many in the OPO, coroners, and funeral homes.
- The Quality Assurance department ensures that the organization remains audit ready and that they are compliant with their regulatory and government bodies. Sarah shares how they do that.
- The Life Center continues to grow and flourish with their mission to enhance lives through donation while honoring those who gave. Sarah and Andi talk about how it is done in such a way that looks out for everyone.
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
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:
- 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.
- Giving back to other people out there that are hurting can help someone heal and get through their own grief.
- 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
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
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://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
Tuesday Nov 22, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, Andi Johnson speaks with Aimee Cordrey. She will be sharing the gift of life that her son, Nicholas has given to many recipients and how influenced others to do the same. She will also be reflecting some light upon the life of her son and sharing her story of grief and pathway to healing. Tune in now for this special story.
Episode Highlights:
- Aimee Cordrey is married to Darren Cordray. They have been married for over 20 years and been together for a little bit longer than that. They met in college, and they have two sons Richard, a 19 year old, and Nick, who would be 17, but he is forever 15. Both of them are athletes, very different yet very similar in their interests and just how they approach life.
- In the middle of the pandemic Aimee and her family had been quarantined like everyone else for quite some time. School had just ended. Nick had just finished freshman year of high school and it was Memorial Day. Nick and Aimee went shopping that day to get some hamburgers and some vegetables and different things to grill out.
- Nick hadn't seen his friends because of quarantine. Aimee allowed him to go meet some of his friends at a local ice cream shop that was within walking distance of their house because one of his best friends was leaving for vacation the next day and she was going to be gone for two weeks.
- Nick decided to take a shower at night. All of a sudden Aimee heard the water go on and then they heard some really heavy, intense breathing, they were shocked. They thought it was our other son Richard, playing video games. She went to the basement, but it was not Richard, it was Nick.
- Nick loved life and he approached everything with this attitude of – "I can do it." His family really believed he was going to be okay and pull through.
- Aimee explains how and when they went about the conversation of Nick being an orgn donor. The hospital staff acknowledged all the protocols that they have in place, and they contacted Life Center.
- Nick had not yet been able to get his temps. He would have been eligible for them. The month that everything happened, he had actually registered as an organ donor.
- The letter that Aimee received said that Nick saved five people with seven organs, and probably impacted 40 to 50 others. The only thing Nick was unable to donate was his intestines, which they initially believed he was going to be able to do until they started doing the surgery.
- Aimee shares her thoughts on what it all meant to her, Darren and Richard to know that Nick helped so many people by donating his organs.
- “Learning that sometimes bad things happen to good people and learning to be ok with that and it is not even being ok with it, it's just accepting it- that is one piece of it. The donation piece brings that pride.” -Aimee
- Aimee thinks that being able to talk about organ donation enables her to talk about Nick.
- Andi feels like Aimee is doing so much just to help people understand the magnitude of the donation and its impact.
- Andi asks Aimee about the project that she is working on at his school in his honor.
- One of Nick's friends, Grayson, started a change.org petition. He wanted to have the school board name the soccer field after Nick.
- There isn't a lesson here when it comes to losing a son. The only lesson that Aimee has learned is that bad things happen to good people, and she has learned that when you encounter a loss like this you integrate it into your life, you don't overcome it.
- Grief is something that has stages and some stages may be re-visited at times. It is ongoing.
- Nick loved everything. All of the time he was researching, reading to understand deeply, caring deeply, everything was with passion, everything was with full intent. He didn't do anything without truly caring about it. If he was gonna do it, he was doing it 100% all in and that's what Nick was, and he is.
3 Key Points:
- Nick had a brain aneurysm that his family didn't know about. Nick did not complain of a headache that day. He didn't have any signs of anything that day. He had an amazing day, and it was that quick. They called 911. They were very quick, they took him to the hospital, his aneurysm ruptured three times. At the hospital, they did surgery on him and for 9 days his family thought Nick was going to make it.
- Aimee tells the listeners how Nick was able to help other people through the gift of life that he was able to give.
- Each one of us is different. Unique as people, Aimee thinks everyone's grief is very unique. She needed to be around other people. Aimee thinks that the donor family council is amazing. They are a source of strength. They are unshakable.
Resources Mentioned:
- LifeCenter | Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Twitter
- Andi Johnson website |LinkedIn
- Organ Donation Website
Tuesday Nov 15, 2022
Tuesday Nov 15, 2022
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://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
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.
https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
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://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, Andi will speak with Mr. Tony Burdette, who will discuss his involvement with organ donation. Tony's life was saved in August 2019 via a liver transplant. His father passed down a genetic disease called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency to him. He was diagnosed in the early 1990s, with symptoms including exhaustion and low platelet counts. Tune in for his great story.
Episode Highlights:
- Tony had never given much thought to organ donation, but sometimes it takes a crisis to bring it to the forefront of your mind.
- Tony's father underwent a liver transplant in 1997, but it was a painful experience since, after 14 hours, the surgeons came out and told them that he probably wouldn't survive. But, happily, doctors were able to get it to work sufficiently, and he received a second transplant two days later.
- The hereditary condition does not impact everyone. They can live perfectly well without it. However, something triggered Tony's liver in early 2019, and his liver began to fail rapidly.
- Tony had all the excess fluid in his body, common for people with liver failure. So, he had to have the procedure called a thoracentesis, and over seven months, he had to have that procedure done 52 times.
- Tony couldn’t keep having these procedures every other day. So at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for evaluation at the Transplant clinic, he was put on the list rather quickly around the beginning of May and received his liver on August 3rd, 2019.
- It was a quick illness for Tony and a painful one, but thankfully his transplant and the surgery were very successful. He was discharged from the hospital just five days later without any complications.
- Tony has a brother. He obviously has the deficiency, but he hasn’t had any symptoms so far. He is under the care of a GI, and they are keeping close tabs on him.
- Both of Tony’s children have a deficiency as well, and they are under the care of the liver transplant team at children just out of precaution. The doctors check them every year and have liver scans done to keep a check on them and make sure everything is ok.
- About three weeks after Tony’s transplant, he received two letters in the mail from elementary-age girls who wrote him a letter and said that they just wanted to let him know that he had received their mother’s liver.
- Tony has studied music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory, one of the greatest in the world, and it is such an honor to be accepted there.
- Tony is the artistic director of an organization called Aviva Voices Choral Organization. It’s an organization that he founded, and it provides high-quality community choirs for children, youth, and adults.
- The program’s cornerstone is the brand new work for a course and orchestra called the breath of life, and it was written actually before the pandemic.
- Often, being open with what you are going through can impact other people. When Tony was going through all this, we posted periodically about this on social media as encouragement for people.
- Tony encourages people to not be afraid no matter what you are going through in life. Be open, share, and find people that you can talk to and know that your story can impact people.
3 Key Points:
- Alpha-1 antitrypsin is an enzyme and it is created in the liver. The deficiency is that the enzyme gets trapped in the liver and creates a deficiency in the lungs. But when that enzyme gets trapped in the liver, it can cause liver damage.
- Tony has spent his whole career serving as a professional musician, singing professionally with opera and orchestras around the country, and doing a lot of conducting with choirs and teaching singing.
- Tony’s concert’s date is Saturday, April 30th, the last day of the month and the last day of donating life month. The concert is taking place at Christ Church Cathedral, which is a huge, beautiful venue.
Resources Mentioned:
- LifeCenter | Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Twitter
- Andi Johnson website |LinkedIn
- Organ Donation Website
- https://www.vivavoices.net/about/
- https://www.facebook.com/tony.burdette.5
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
Tuesday Oct 11, 2022
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://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
Life Center Phone # 513-558-5555