Page 2 - Lion's Gift of Sight Fall Newsletter

Lions Gift of Sight
TODAY
FALL 2020
Grimes Retirement . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Lions: Kindness & Diversity. . . . . 4 November Happenings . . . . . . . . 4 OMC Interview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 EBAA...................... 6 Eye Donation Month . . . . . . . . . . 6 Employee Spotlight. . . . . . . . . . . 7 Donor Spotlight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Recipient Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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Lions Gift of Sight TODAY is published twice a year by the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Lions Gift of Sight
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences
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2 Lions Gift of Sight
Every Donation Matters.
Sean Poppoff, Executive Director
Lions Gift of Sight operates on the strong belief that every donation matters. A donation for transplant profoundly affects the lives of one person. A donation for research can affect the care of eye patients in all generations to come. When the phone rings with a donation referral, we can only guess the impact a particular donation will have.
We recently coordinated a donation that shows how deeply ingrained the “every donation matters” philosophy is in our staff. The donation took extra effort from all persons involved (including external partners), and I would like to tell you about it.
During a donor screening our Donor Eligibility Manager, Kody, identified an ocular condi- tion caused by mutations in the genetic composition of the mitochondria (the powerhouse of living cells) in a would-be transplant donor. Since this condition ruled out the donor
for transplant, Kody immediately alerted Ching, our Director of Research and Develop- ment, who confirmed the patient’s rare condition of Mitochondria Encephalopathy Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke (or MELAS). Ching contacted Dr. Robert Mullins at the University of Iowa whose research on retinal degeneration and rare genetic eye diseases could benefit. Dr. Mullins very much wanted to receive these donor eyes.
This particular donor was in the care of the Mayo Clinic Office of Decedent Affairs, whose personnel were instrumental in helping make the donation possible. Initially an autopsy was scheduled to occur before eye donation, but this delay in recovery would render the eye tissues unusable for the researcher. After our coordination team compellingly explained the difficulty, the day’s autopsy list was graciously rearranged to accommodate the eye donation.
Rochester Recovery Technician Nancy performed the eye enucleations at 6:30 in the evening and drove 11⁄2 hours to the eye bank to deliver the eyes. Waiting for her was Research Sci- entist Sung who came in after hours to draw the vitreous (an essential autopsy component) from the eyes. While Nancy made the 90-minute return trip to Rochester with the vitreous specimens for the medical examiner, Sung processed the tissues to Dr. Mullins’ specifica- tions and prepared the shipment for his lab. The eye donation was in Iowa the following day.
Without my amazing staff members working together and the collaboration of the Mayo Clinic, this donation and contribution to medical research would not have been possible. While it is only a single donation among the thousands we coordinate every year, this dona- tion was extremely significant to the 1 in 4,000 people suffering from mitochondrial disease, the doctors who treat them, and the scientists seeking a cure. Every donation matters.