By Julie Wood
DiMedio provides resources on organ donor registration throughout National Donate Life Month
Kate DiMedio, BSN, RN, a medication safety officer, has multiple perspectives to the power of organ donation — not only through her advocacy for the Gift of Life Donor Program and encouraging donor registration at Pennsylvania Hospital, but also as a loved one. She’s witnessed its lifesaving effects through family members who received kidney and pancreas transplants. DiMedio has also been on the other side of organ donation — her mother gave the gift of life to others when she passed away in 2017.
“While I always appreciated being in the world of organ donation as a healthcare worker, this experience took on a whole new level for me when I became a family member on the donor side,” DiMedio said.
DiMedio’s mother, described as her family’s “paparazzi,” was always seen taking photos on her phone of the things that mattered most to her. “All her photos were of her grandchildren, her siblings, friends, nieces, and nephews,” said DiMedio. “She was engaged on every level as a grandma, and she was everybody’s favorite aunt. She would give them a treat anytime they walked through her door.”
In October 2017, when getting ready to leave for breakfast with a friend, DiMedio’s mother fell in her home and was rushed to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. The next day, she passed away surrounded by her family at the hospital.
“I knew my mom was registered as an organ donor on her license,” DiMedio said. “She was always a giver, and I knew this was something she would want to do.”
DiMedio and her family participating in the Gift of Life Donor Dash
DiMedio and her family coordinated with her mother's medical team and she was approved to donate tissue and eyes.
DiMedio later found out that one of the eye transplant recipients was a man who had recently become a grandfather — a special connection to DiMedio as her mother took pride in being a grandparent. DiMedio appreciates that someone else can now have this gift of vision to see those meaningful moments with his own family that her mother had cherished.
Since then, DiMedio has been actively involved in advocacy for the Gift of Life. At PAH, DiMedio arranges a booth outside of the cafeteria throughout April — National Donate Life Month — to provide resources about the organ donor program.
For the past five years, her family and friends have participated in the annual Gift of Life Donor Dash, where thousands of people run and walk in Philadelphia to raise awareness for organ donation and to honor those who have given the gift of life.
“It’s powerful joining events like this, to see all these other people walking together as donor families,” said DiMedio. “It’s bittersweet, but this really is a celebration. We’re all celebrating a gift that was given.”