Nichole Salaam
Appearances
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
I can certainly take that one. And then if you have anything to add to that. So earlier I mentioned we often hear from communities, marginalized communities, who have limited knowledge of the donation process. So when we think about the health and wellness and healthcare in general, donation is not necessarily something that is well understood.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And so having that knowledge, having access to understanding the donation process is really, really key. I also talked about medical mistrust, which is very visceral for some folks. given experiences that they themselves have had or family members have had, thus just not trusting the process and that, as Susan mentioned, in order for someone to be a donor, people have to be ventilated.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And so the idea sometimes is that, well, if I'm a registered donor, medical personnel will not work as hard to save my life. So that's one of the myths that's out there. We also find that there are numerous cultural reasons why people don't donate. So we often hear from various cultures that we want our loved one to be whole when they pass or they transition.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And so people may be a little less, you know, a little averse to actually authorizing for their loved one to be a donor. And then I think there's just, those are primarily the reasons that we hear. I would say again, that just because donation is such a nuanced process, organ procurement organizations are the ones who manage that process.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And they'll be work with our hospitals and partner with our hospitals, DMV transplant centers. It's such a unique niche industry that is oftentimes just not very well understood. Susan, I don't know if you'd like to add anything to that.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
I will just add to that too. That's a question we oftentimes get in the communities that we are engaging with about living donation. And as Susan mentioned, we do not manage that process. That's the transplant centers that do that. But it is a way, I think, of engaging people in the conversation about donation.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
If there is an opportunity that someone might have to be a living donor to a loved one or a friend, um, it's, it's a, it's, it's a good way to open the door to having, having that dialogue.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Generally, I'm not aware of that. The cultural component often comes into play, as I mentioned earlier, if people want the body to be whole. If tissue donation comes into play too, there's maybe a little bit more concern around that. But That is not something that I'm aware of. Susan, I don't know if you've, in the 20 years you've been with LifeSource, if you've run into that at all.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Yeah, I certainly echo that, Sharon. Your synopsis of your experience with your aunt and LifeSource is really one of the reasons why... It's so important that people understand the beauty of the work that we do and the gift that people are able to give in saving other people's lives by registering to donate, to be an organ donor.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Our donation liaisons, I just want to give them a shout out, are amazing at what they do. the number of things that they navigate with families and our hospital partners is top notch. And so I'm so happy to hear, Sheridan, that you had that experience with our team members and that your aunt was able to give the gift of life. So thank you.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Sure, yeah. So thanks, Clarence. So Susan had mentioned that Minnesota is a really generous state. We've, you know, got about 56% of Minnesotans are registered as organ donors on their driver's license or state ID. 60% of the almost 106,000 people on the national waiting list are from communities of color. And so when we look at
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
In Minnesota right now, there's about 805 people on the transplant waiting list. And so when we think about donation, in many communities of color, we see high incidences of kidney disease, people who are in need of kidney transplant. And so where we bring in the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion is understanding that while we have a really high incidence
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
need, there are not people that are registered as donors in those communities. And so we see that there is a significant need to really educate and inform people about the donation process, which is, as we talk about, very nuanced, very sophisticated. And then also just addressing reasons why people may not register to donate due to things like medical mistrust,
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
And really just hearing, you know, what people's lived experiences are kind of with the healthcare industry. So doing our work through an equity lens is really essential because we're able to work with members of diverse communities in a different nuanced way as well.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Sorry, I was having some sound issues here. My apologies. And hopefully I won't. I won't. You want me to repeat it again? Get caught off again. Yeah. Could you? Sorry about that.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
Well, I would say first that the need is way higher than what is available. And so when we have people that register to donate, we know that one person, we say this all the time, particularly when we're out and educating people about the donation process, one person can save up to 75 lives. And so if we calculate that, that's a lot of lives saved once we have people who register to donate.
Health Chatter
Organ Donation with LifeSource
So there's, you know, in terms of organs that can be donated, we also know that musculoskeletal tissue can also be donated. And so it's really important when we're talking with people to inspire them to be donors for those reasons.