This Thing Called Life

Episode 54: The Impact Of Tissue Donation On Our Community

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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:

    1. 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://aopo.org/

    https://lifepassiton.org/

    https://www.facebook.com/LifeCenterOH

    https://www.youtube.com/user/LifeCenterOH



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