Page 5 - Lions Gift of Sight Today

Working with the VA
If you visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, you come across this historical tidbit: The United States has the most comprehensive system of assistance for Veterans of any nation in the world. Caring for Americans who serve actually predates the found- ing of our nation, and the roots of veterans’ assistance date back to the Plymouth Colony. The work of the VA has greatly evolved in the ensuing centuries, but its drive to serve and honor the men and women who are America’s veterans has been constant.
Lions Gift of Sight has the privilege of working with the VA
to help restore sight to its veteran patients through corneal transplants. We are also honored that many veterans choose to donate their eyes after death, helping countless people through transplants, education, and research. The Minneapolis, Saint Cloud, and Fargo VA’s all refer potential eye donors to Lions Gift of Sight. Veterans, like the Lions, are known for their ser- vice, and their contributions are considerable.
gan referring all patient deaths for donation potential. In 2018, the VA hospital donation committee added social workers to the team, and in 2019 eye, organ, and tissue donation material was placed in the advanced care planning and decedent and sur- vivor packets, distributed across all of Minnesota and eastern
North Dakota.
These best practices have resulted in a doubling of calls to the donation referral line from the
VA and twice the number of eye donors!
Working with VA hospice is a privilege. The donors that come from the VA are men and
women who pledged their lives in order to protect the lives and freedoms of others. Togeth-
er, the VA and Lions Gift of Sight give these veterans the chance to perform a final act of charity to cap a lifetime of service: hope and healing through eye donation.
We salute our veteran eye donors and thank them for their service to the sight-impaired and
to our country.
In 2021, the Minneapolis VA was recognized as an Eye Dona- tion Champion for its work to promote donation and honor do- nor wishes. Pictured are: Sara Lassig, PhD, LICSW, Palliative Care Team Coordinator and Social Worker; Teresa Capecchi, MSN, RN, 1E Nurse Manager and Donor Champions Chair; Molly Malchert, LICSW, General Caregiver Support Program Respite Coordinator; and Lions Gift of Sight Eye Tissue Re- covery Manager, Patrick Becker, CEBT.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services re- quires hospitals to refer for donation, but the VA is under no such obligation, nor are their hospice facilities. Yet the VA does work with
Lions Gift of Sight to refer patients for dona- tion screening, increasing donation oppor- tunities and the potential to restore sight.
Best practices have resulted in a doubling of VA eye donors.
The Minneapolis VA (a 2020 Clinical Site of Ex-
cellence) is our largest VA donor referral source,
so let’s take a brief look at its impact on eye donation.
LGS Partner Relations Liaison Mary Yapp notes that, in 2017, Unit 1D, the in-hospital hospice unit at the Minneapolis VA, be-
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