Since December 2020, I’ve been heavily involved with our hospital’s organ donor care center (DCC), and with the start of this academic year, I transitioned into the medical director role. The DCC is a dedicated ICU within Memorial Hermann Hospital for donors and their families, improving clinical efficiency and patient care for our “heroes” – the term we use to describe our organ donors.
Anesthesia critical care intensivists staff this unit on a moonlighting basis. To optimize their clinical status, we provide our heroes with daily assessments, medical recommendations, and procedures (bronchoscopy, central/arterial lines, ultrasonography, chest tubes, etc.). At the same time, LifeGift, our organ procurement organization, coordinates with centers nationwide for organ matching. In many situations, we also function as the heroes’ anesthesiologists for the procurement operation. Furthermore, we are involved with the donation after cardiac death (DCD) process.
I’m looking forward to seeing this unit expand over the coming years as we focus on research initiatives and expanding our outreach to include more hospitals around the city.
Leave a Reply