By Norma Dittman
Murray County News staff writer
RaChelle Gruba, Senior Regional Development Manager, with Dakota Lions Sight and Health spoke to several Murray County Medical Center nurses and staff members on Monday during an organ donation in-service.
Dakota Lions Sight and Health is a team of professionals who are dedicated to the mission of helping to enable the restoration of the gifts of sight and health through eye and tissue transplants.
During 2016, Dakota Lions Sight and Health was instrumental in coordinating 961 corneal transplants. 630 donors contributed to the corneal transplants and other tissue donations throughout the year.
In speaking to nursing staff members at MCMC, Gruba explained that when a known donor (one who has marked their drivers license indicating that they are a donor, or registered on a donor registry) passes away, or when their death is imminent, a call from the medical facility should be placed to Dakota Lions Sight and Health in a timely manner. When notified, Dakota Lions Sight and Health contacts one of their donor coordinators to visit with the donor’s family. “We always want to ensure that the family of each potential donor is informed of the donation options by someone that has been well-trained to do so,” Gruba said. “It is so very important to honor the donor’s, and the family’s, wishes.”
Dakota Lions Sight and Health is a full-service eye donation center. They also work with many different transplant options includig corneas or whole eyes, bone, connective tissues, skin, heart valves, saphenous veins, femoral veins, nerves, and research tissue.
To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Murray County News or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.murraycountynews.net/sub/account_login.asp
