Page 7 - LGS Today Newsletter Fall 2021

Mayo Creates Donation Tribute
Early in 2021, Mayo Clinic unveiled the newly constructed Gift of Life wall. Located just inside the main entrance of the Mary Brigh Building on the Saint Marys Campus of Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester. The installation recognizes all organ, blood, eye, tissue, and whole-body donors. The Gift of Life Wall is a place of hope and healing and a testament to Mayo’s support of transplant medicine.
Designed and constructed by Mayo staff, the tribute was many years and many minds in the making. Lions Gift of Sight was honored to be included in the work group that brought the project to fruition. The timeless design is an elegant work of beauty with messaging that embodies Mayo Clinic values. And, in fact, the Mayo Clinic Values Council honored project and donation committee member Mollie Luhman with the prestigious Karis Award, in part, for her work on this project. The award formally recognizes caring persons who consistently live out the Mayo Clinic values in an extraordinary way, as they serve patients, visitors, and colleagues.
Honoring the Gift of Life
In the Mayo Clinic mission of providing hope and healing to our patients, we honor people who give of themselves to serve others through selfless acts of donation.
Organ, blood, eye and tissue donations provide new life to their recipients. Anatomical donations advance the training of highly skilled, compassionate health care professionals.
With the generous spirit of these donors, every life has a new beginning.
Sister Mary Brigh Cassidy, administrator of Saint Marys Hospital from 1946 to 1971 is quoted in the installation. The quote reads, “We have only today in which to work, to pray, to dream, to plan and to help build a better world.”
Watch the beautiful Walk of Remembrance video (link address below) that was crafted to honor donors and to unveil this incredible new tribute wall. Featured in the video are Steve and Jackie Rasmusson, parents of eye donor Tim Rasmusson. Steve served as construction manager for the project.
Walk of Remembrance video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIbAE4S81yI
Park Nicollet Methodist Considers Donation Best Practices in Remodel
Lions Gift of Sight recovery technicians perform eye recover- ies in funeral homes, medical examiner spaces, various hospi- tal locations, and wherever time, place, and regulations allow. Some sites are the Ritz of recovery settings and some are, well, very much not. So it was with deep gratitude that our eye bank greeted Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital’s invitation to share eye and cornea recovery best practices with them before they remodeled their hospital morgue.
LGS joined in conversations regarding the morgue remodel
starting in late 2020, and, throughout the project, suggestions for improved eye donation usability were met with respect
and accommodation. The new and improved morgue is now finished, and we at Lions Gift of Sight could not be more pleased. Staff who have used the new room to recover eye tis- sue from Park Nicollet Methodist donors report that the space considerably eases their work.
On behalf of donors and their families, we salute Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital for their support of donation!
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