Lyric’s organ donation promptly sustained the quality of life for five
individuals, and similar transplant needs exist every day. For such miracles to
occur, many caring people provide medical help, counseling, and various means of
support. It is important for LOL to directly help individuals and families as
part of its mission. This process takes awareness and education to the next
level.....application.
Two important institutions in the Kansas City area are St. Luke’s Hospital and
Midwest Transplant Network (MTN), the Organ Procurement
Organization for Kansas and western Missouri. These
facilities have offered LOL the opportunity to help transplant patients and
their families in ways that
can relieve some of the initial burden of their experiences. Karen Cottrell is
a renal transplant social worker at St. Luke’s and GiGi Vulgamott is a hospital
and family services coordinator at MTN. By coming into contact with various
organ donation-related situations, these two liaisons keep LOL apprised of
special situations in which families may be assisted temporarily to relieve
sudden or daunting financial burdens.
In the greater scheme of things, assistance to these donor and recipient families by LOL
may seem small, but each situation results in some relief. LOL
assists when
other agencies are unauthorized or have cut back in certain areas. Paying
for funerals,
travel expenses, and dental costs are ways that LOL has reached out. The
stories are endless. LOL hopes to continue easing the recovery period for those
in need.
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