Staff from PPMC participated in a variety of activities during National Donate Life Month.
Guilbert Eusebio, RRT, a registered respiratory therapist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) has been awaiting a kidney transplant since 2018.
Santa Iaconelli, CRCST, CHL, director of Perioperative Support Services, has a sister-in-law who’s been waiting for a kidney transplant for at least two years.
Deborah Butzbach, MD, a radiation oncologist, tragically lost her 13-year-old son in a car accident and donated his organs to save the lives of four other children.
These are a few of the many personal stories that PPMC employees recently shared as part of the hospital’s annual Donate Life Challenge. The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), in partnership with the Center for Organ Recovery and Education and the Gift of Life Donor Program, established the Donate Life Hospital Challenge, held every April during National Donate Life Month. PPMC has been an active participant, spreading awareness among hospital staff, patients, families, and vendors about the vital need for organ, eye, and tissue donations and encouraging them to sign donor registries.
Throughout April, PPMC employees shared their stories, registered as organ, eye, and tissue donors, walked and ran in the Gift of Life Donor Dash, showed their spirit on Donate Life Blue and Green Day, planted a memorial tree, signed banners, and helped promote life-saving organ donation. They also connected with Penn Medicine colleagues like Lab Operations Manager Suanne Gardiner at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who donated one of her kidneys last December to a stranger in need.
“In almost every conversation — casual or in meetings — we are amazed to hear a story about a donor recipient, donor, or someone in need. We have seen views shift in a positive light after sharing these stories,” said Susan Citta Chodoff, MBA, director of Regulatory and Accreditation at PPMC, who led this year’s activities with PPMC’s George Iyoob, MHA, RN, BSN, director of Trauma and Orthopedics, and Michael Atweh, MBA, MHA, senior director of Pathology and Lab Medicine, with help from Atweh’s administrative assistants, Sara Rubins and Hannah Smith.