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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 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
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
During this episode of This Thing Called Life podcast, host Andi Johnson talks to Dr. Govil,who has been in health care for many years, specifically working in the area of kidneys and kidney health He is a professor of medicine at UC Health as well as Director of Transplant and Chief Section of Transplantation.
Episode Highlights:
- Dr. Govil shares has been in this field for over 20 years and he has dedicated more than 15 years of that time to take care of patients needing kidney transplants.
- Dr. Govil shares why he chose this area of medicine to practice in.
- One of Dr. Govil’s first exposures as a medical resident was with a patient who had trace protein in the urine. All of them, as residents, ignored that component of lab finding and did not realize that their finding was a world-renowned figure in diabetic kidney disease.
- One in six of the US population is at risk for kidney disease, and more importantly, one in 10 out of the US has some element of kidney disease or chronic kidney disease.
- Dr. Govil says kidney disease is very silent. You may only have pain in the kidneys when you have physical problems like kidney stones or any cyst that is hurting you.
- The only way you discover kidney disease is through the blood test and routine numbers analysis.
- Diet does play a role in making kidney disease worse or stable, but a lot of that has to be done with how we manage our primary disease, which is causing kidney disease.
- It is very difficult to ask one patient to stop eating salt because everything we eat around us is loaded with salt, and it is very difficult to break that cycle, says Dr. Govil.
- Andi asks, “Is this kidney disease more prevalent here in America, or is it more prevalent in other parts of the world?”
- There are definitely certain aspects of kidney disease that we do not understand, which means that they may have familial clustering, says Dr. Govil.
- As we progress, we now can identify certain genes that make one more prone to have kidney disease, which does not mean that everyone who has it will present with it.
- Andi asks about Dr. Govil’s experience specifically, “Do you see more of Caucasian patients? Do they seem to have more success in identifying living kidney donors? And if so, why do you think that is?”
- When we look at the transplant or people who are receiving dialysis, 1/3 of them are African American, which means that there is definitely more propensity of any disease in this group of patients than any other group.
- Dr. Govil says, “When we look at the number of people on the list compared to the people who get transplanted and then compare it to the number of people who are on dialysis, they just don't add up completely.”
- Dr. Govil clarifies the myth that kidney donation can harm a donor in the short run and in the long term.
- As per Dr. Govil, education is the key, and that is what he feels when he goes to multiple outreach clinics in the tri-state area, and he realizes a lot of these barriers are related to misinformation.
- Dr. Govil gives recommendations for keeping your kidneys healthy.
- Don't count on kidney pain as one of the symptoms because kidney pain really is not a symptom of kidney disease -that is just a mechanical problem, which could be because of a stone in the kidney or some cyst.
- Diseases are frightening in many aspects; These are things that could be prevented if we took the proper steps and proactively saw our doctors.
- Changes in organ allocation will generally increase some of the volume, but it will definitely increase the volume for certain centers to do more transplants.
- A donor that may have hepatitis is now able to give organs to the patient in need of a transplant, and then that can be treated, says Andi.
- The dialysis survival is really dismal over a period of time. So, a 10-year survival on dialysis is around 10%.
3 Key Points:
- Dr. Govil explains what leads someone to having kidney failure. We have to realize that the kidneys are affected by a lot of things that happen in our body, whether it be high blood pressure, diabetes, or any other changes that may be related to some problems happening at the level of the kidney itself.
- Kidney disease means we are in a tier of the kidney, which is a very silent process and so essentially, your kidneys really do not have to hurt and actually they do not hurt at all when you fail your kidneys over a period of time.
- If we have a healthy, balanced diet to stabilize our diabetes and high blood pressure, it will indirectly help keep our kidneys happy and healthy.
Resources Mentioned:
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 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 Sep 20, 2022
Tuesday Sep 20, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson is talking with Sandra Wright. She has a special testimony to share. The goal of this podcast is to help listeners understand what organ donation is and isn’t and how it truly impacts others. February is Black History Month and American Heart Month. Sandra is a transplant survivor and the founder of The Greater Cincinnati African American Heart Association. Tune in now for her special story!
Episode Highlights:
- Sandra is a heart transplant recipient. In 2014, she contracted a virus that was never named but lingered and left her with a side effect of shortness of breath. Later that year, she was on vacation when it all kind of climaxed.
- She shares her story of going to the hospital and the dire state she was in. She was told she had Heart Failure but she went into immediate denial. She cautions the listeners against denial because then you don’t do what you need to do.
- There will be a book coming out to tell Sandra’s full story in the future to help many.
- Christ Hospital in Cincinnati set her on the path of her life being saved.
- Prior to Sandra’s visit at Christ Hospital, every two months she would go for maintenance care to control the edema but other than that she wouldn’t take the medicine or change her lifestyle until 2017 when her heart would no longer serve her.
- Sandra shares how her faith got her through the scary time of being in need of a heart.
- The Greater Cincinnati African American Heart Association was created by Sandra to help provide others support, to create a community where they feel respected, heard, and understood. She shares about the services and her vision for down the road.
- For those who hear they have CFH, Congestive Heart Failure, that is all they are going to think about and can come unexpectedly and at vulnerable times.
- Andi shares how the healthcare system is not accessible for all and how detrimental it is for many, especially people of color.
- Sandra shares a sad story of talking with her granddaughter who said she ‘hated being black’ and how that ideology fuels her heart and mission to create an environment of support for the African American Community.
- Andi asks Sandra to share any encouraging thing she is experiencing or new strength she sees in the community.
- Andi reminds listeners that today, 106,494 people are waiting for life saving organ transplants and more than 3,400 need heart transplants. Can you think about your decision to be a donor and save a life?
3 Key Points:
- Sandra shares a shocking story of her journey with heart failure and the danger of being in denial of the diagnosis.
- The African American community is at the highest risk and has the greatest fatality which led Sandra to create The Greater Cincinnati African American Heart Association as a community of support.
- Sandra shares that living 65 years in this world, we are beginning to understand the necessity of working together and supporting each other and that is encouraging and exciting.
Resources Mentioned:
- LifeCenter | Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Twitter
- Andi Johnson website |LinkedIn
- Organ Donation Website
- Sandra Wright |swright.gcaaha@gmail.com |513-484-4772
- The Greater Cincinnati African American Heart Association
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 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 Sep 06, 2022
Tuesday Sep 06, 2022
On this episode of This Thing Called Life, Andi speaks with Stephanie Gastaldo. This is our 6th episode in our series of exploring how the donation process works from the OPO lens.. Stephanie talks about her role in the department as a connector to the hospital partners and just keeping the education going and the lines of communication open. Tune in now!
Episode Highlights:
- The purpose of the series is twofold; Andi wants to explain more about the OPOs role in functionality so that you can understand how the gifts of organ, eye and tissue donation come to be as well as just understand everything that goes into this life saving and life healing process.
- Stephanie talks about her role at the Life Center. She also talks about how her brother was an organ and tissue donor.
- Stephanie talks about her work at the Life Center as a Hospital Services Coordinator. She says that the best part of her job is to tell her elder brother's story and make people aware of organ, eye and tissue donation.
- Stephanie's role is to make sure she is first and foremost and building relationships with the teams that includes physicians, bedside nurses, chaplain respiratory therapist, a hospital unit coordinator, patient care support staff to make sure that she is building these relationships, that they know who is life center, why we need to work together specifically educating that it's a center for Medicare and Medicaid services requirement.
- Daily at 7:00 AM Stephanie takes a call with all the coordinators and the staff they connect to discuss what's going on, what the day is going to look like as it's always changing.
- Apart from her day-to-day duties Stephanie also focuses on building education and scheduling events.
- Stephanie talks about the challenges faced by her department during the pandemic and how they coped up in the entire situation.
- As a Hospital Unit Coordinator, you can't be super reactionary to things, you will have to be a hustler and good responder to challenging situations, says Stephanie.
- As a Hospital Unit Coordinator, you have to have really good skills of just listening and responding to what people are telling you and then being able to find the important information from what they are telling you.
- The biggest challenge of Stephanie's job is to slow down amidst all the hustle-bustle around her.
- One of Stephanie's ways to reset her emotional dial is to hear a donor story or a donor family story or to hear the recipient's stories.
- Stephanie talks about her biggest challenge in community relations.
- Not everyone has this same understanding or experience or level of support of donation that others may have made, says Andi.
- Stephanie's goal every day is just to make sure that her hospital staff is aware of the process to ultimately give these families what they deserve, which is the most respectful supportive braces through donation.
3 Key Points:
- Stephanie talks about her life altering experience post losing two of her brothers.
- Stephanie shares the importance of relationship building and how she trains and motivates the staff and educates them so that they become ready to deal with patients and their families.
- Stephanie shares the skill sets and characteristics that are required to succeed as a Hospital Unit Coordinator.
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Tuesday Aug 30, 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 Aug 23, 2022
Tuesday Aug 23, 2022
Today on This Thing Called Life, Andi leads the discussion for the the 5th episode of the special series- The Donation Process From the Lens of the OPO (Organ Procurement Organization). In this episode, Andi talks with Michele Meyers, a tissue recovery tech, to discuss the tissue recovery side of this process. If you have missed the previous episode in this series, please go back to follow along the fascinating journey of organ donation with its intricate details and required collaboration. Tune in now to catch the new part of this series.
Episode Highlights:
- With this series of podcast, Andi has been explaining more about OPO roles and functionality so that you can know how the gift of organ and eye tissue donation come to be as well as the intricacies of this lifesaving and life healing process.
- Michele was a surgical tech and she decided that she wanted to do something else, but she still wanted to kind of stay in the surgery field. There was somebody who mentioned tissue recovery tech and she thought that was something that she could do.
- Michele enjoys the feeling of knowing that she is helping change and save someone's life with tissue that they recover.
- Michele works in three-man teams. They have two tissue recovery techs and a team lead. The team lead role is to receive the donor, do the paperwork, and the physical assessments.
- The donor age creates a lot of challenges to work with, especially if it is a child as a donor, but we have a really supportive team, says Michelle.
- There have been many times when Michelle came across people who didn't even know about tissue recovery.
- The first thing to start as tissue recovery tech, you have to have a sense of humor because it gets you through a lot of things, Michelle.
- Michelle has never worked at a company where the CEO knows everybody's name.
3 Key Points:
- Michele talks about what it looks like when the tissue recovery process happens.
- What are the skills and traits one needs to have in order to become a tissue recovery tech?
- In addition to what Michelle does as a tissue recovery technician, she also volunteers her time to help on the community education side.
Resources Mentioned:
https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH
https://www.youtube.com/user/LifeCenterOH