One of The Methodist Hospital's chief partners in its state-of-the-art transplantation program is Houston-based LifeGift Organ Donation Center. Established in 1987, LifeGift is a not-for-profit organ procurement organization dedicated to increasing organ and tissue donation for the purpose of transplantation.
Through its collaboration with hospital staff members and physicians, LifeGift provides organs for some of the country's leading transplant centers, like Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center. The agency serves Southeast, North and West Texas with offices are located in Houston, Fort Worth, Lubbock and Amarillo.
The mantra "every donor, every time" is taken seriously at LifeGift. The organization continually had often led the country in new and innovative methods for increasing donation rates, including the highly effective in-house coordinator's program. Initially a pilot project, the grant-funded program has been modeled in other areas of the country to recover as many donors and organs as possible and, ultimately, save more lives.
LifeGift staff members and volunteers never forget the individuals who make saving lives possible donors and their family members. For them, LifeGift provides information on the donation process, the placement of organs and progress of recipients, and the bereavement process. This includes contact for at least one year after donation and access to a referral service to help meet specialized needs of donor families.
Public education plays a vital role at LifeGift. Several hundred volunteers many of whom are Methodist transplant recipients work alongside staff members to promote organ donation, often relating their own experiences as donor family members and organ recipients as part of the LifeGift Speakers Bureau.
For further information on LifeGift or donation, visit www.lifegift.org or call 800-633-6562.
