Page 5 - Summer 2020 Newsletter

Hennepin County Medical
Examiner’s Office: Best
Practices Boost Eye Donation
Lions Gift of Sight is privileged to work with many highly-regarded institutions and individuals to meet our mission to restore sight. One such organization that consistently and tirelessly raises the bar in the practice of donation referral is the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
with donation opportunities, and, in fact, believed it was a medical examiner’s responsibility to the communities being served. When morgue supervisor Jackie Ulven, F-ABMDI, began as lead investigator,
she fully owned this ideology and continued to lead the way in establishing best practices for, and removing barriers to, donation.
Eye donation is extremely time-sensitive, and HCME’s strategic autopsy scheduling assured that pending eye cases moved forward in a timely manner. Revision of the content of a hospice pre-registration form opened the door of donation to more patients, regardless of where their deaths occurred. Most recently, implementation of an online hospice registration portal assures all hospice deaths are referred for donation.
These practices have resulted in an amazing increase in eye donors referred by HCME. In 2016, HCME referrals resulted in 175 eye donors to Lions Gift of Sight. With the above-mentioned changes, HCME referrals climbed to 3,490 in 2019, yielding 872 donors, with 412 corneas going for transplant and 1,243 eyes or corneas dedicated to research and medical education. This is an astounding increase in just three years!
Thank you to HCME for pioneering best practices in Minnesota. Your actions ensure that more families are given the opportunity to find hope and healing through donation.
Sean Poppoff (Lions Gift of Sight Executive Director), Joshua Hou, M.D. (Lions Gift of Sight Medical Director), Lyle Goff (Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation Chair), and Kevin Corcoran (Eye Bank Association of America President and CEO) honor Jackie Soucek Ulven (center) and her team for their support of donation.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office (HCME) has a long history of fostering a culture of donation. Roberta Geiselhart, retired
supervisor of investigations, was instrumental in
establishing a foundation to provide families
Eye donation is time-sensitive, and HCME’s strategic autopsy scheduling assured that pending eye cases moved forward in a timely manner.
Lions Gift of Sight Turns 60
Lions Gift of Sight is celebrating sixty years of service in 2020! It was sixty years ago that the University of Minnesota and the Lions combined their aspirations and resources to create a state eye bank: Minnesota Lions Eye Bank. This labor of love superbly exemplified the values of both organizations.
Minnesota Lions Eye Bank, re- dubbed Lions Gift of Sight in
2018, has become one of the most respected and innovative eye banks in the world. We have now provided more than 34,000 corneas for transplant and yield an economic benefit to the state of Minnesota
of $117 million every year. Happy birthday, Lions Gift of Sight!
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