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Gift of Life is using a new organ care system that preserves lungs outside the body and extends the amount of time from surgical recovery to transplantation. The TransMedics system also reconditions marginally healthy lungs after they’re connected to the machine, making more lungs healthy enough to transplant. The result: More lungs available and improved quality of the organs for recipients. Without this system, donated lungs must be transplanted within six hours. In these cases, transplants were successful after seven hours. One set of lungs was preserved for 23 hours.

Already recognized as a Great Place to Work, Gift of Life Michigan is taking steps to become even better.   The organization’s Better Together work group, which focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion, conducted a survey recently in which nearly half of Gift of Life’s staff submitted feedback about what they wanted to learn from the group.   

The fourth annual Champions Gala kicked off National Donate Life Month, with special tributes to the best of the best in Michigan’s donation and transplant community. Gift of Life Michigan honored 17 individuals, four partner organizations, and one hospital with 2022 Donation Champion awards, recognizing their extraordinary efforts to help fulfill the wishes of organ and tissue donors and their families. 

One of the easiest ways to help the Gift of Life Foundation is with a Facebook Fundraiser for your birthday, or in honor or memory of a friend or family member.   It’s simple to set…

Gift of Life Foundation launches first annual appeal  As Gift of Life Michigan battles the ever-present transplant waiting list and strives to add one million names to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry, resources for critical…

Autumn Harris guides families in crisis as their loved ones save and transform lives. The young wife of a dying man asks his nurse about organ donation and Autumn Harris is right there with answers…

Volunteer honored posthumously for work with Gift of Life Michigan Kenton Kurth never met a stranger. “He never met anyone he didn’t like, and I don’t think anyone didn’t like him,” said Sarah Kurth, his…

Goodrich woman donated kidney to long-time family friend Goodrich, MI – With an act of incredible generosity and kindness, Lynette Bailey gave a long-time family friend the most precious gift of all: time. Lynette, now…

Gift of Life Michigan welcomes Hartley T. Heart. Hartley is Gift of Life Michigan’s newest employee, providing a light-hearted (pun intended) opportunity to engage people in a life-saving message. Hartley was designed as a fun…

March is National Kidney Month Armond Baskin knew he had high blood pressure, but he didn’t know how serious it was. Diagnosed more than 20 years ago, the Flint man, now 40, thought he was…

Gift of Life Michigan is now using a TransMedics Organ Care System (OCS) that will prolong the life of donated lungs – and even help recondition them – increasing the probability of a successful donor match and improving long-term health for recipients. Clinical trials are also under way for similar technology that would be used for donated livers, hearts, and kidneys.

Marcia Toda recently heard her daughter’s heart beating, still strong, in the chest of 31-year-old Lauren Herrera. The two women met recently at the Gift of Life Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.

Gift of Life Michigan was thrilled to receive three Pinnacle Awards from Donate Life America in 2021 for some of the best community outreach programs in the nation.

“All I want to do is volunteer and help out,” advocate says.   Scott Campbell never let his condition slow him down – even after his second heart transplant. Born with self-corrected transposition of the…

Nilam Patel and her colleagues in Gift of Life Michigan’s Laboratory are medical matchmakers in the intricate organ donation process that transpires over a series of days and ends with lives saved. 

Anyone who knew Cody Baron would expect to see his picture beside the words ‘selfless’ and ‘generous’ in the dictionary.   “He lived each of his days with joy, laughter, and vigor,” said his mother, Wendy…

Being certified as a Great Place to Work is always an honor, but we feel especially honored after navigating the challenges presented in 2021. The Great Places to Work distinction shows that we’ve been able to provide our employees with an environment that supports them and their commitment to our mission. We’re so proud of that!

Gift of Life Michigan provides inspiring, educational presentations about organ and tissue donation to high school students across the state through the award-winning program, All of Us.

Liver recipient turns miracle into advocacy After a liver transplant saved his life, Tim Davidson felt a responsibility to give back to the community and help others in his situation. “You have to live a…

Erin Krause submitted this thoughtful remembrance on Facebook over the holidays; we’re sharing it here with her permission in hopes it brings comfort to donor families and hope to those who are awaiting a second…

‘All I want to do is volunteer and help out,’ advocate says   Scott Campbell never let his condition slow him down – even after his second heart transplant. Born with self-corrected transposition of the…

Chad Milton knows the spirit of his late wife lives on – he’s even heard proof. A traffic accident claimed Mary Milton in 2016, shortly after the 43-year-old left their home to go to the…

When Michael Collier says he’s in better shape now than he was more than 20 years ago, it’s easy to believe him. Nearly 11 years ago, a heart transplant saved his life and gave him…

‘It has to stop because too many people are losing their lives,’ says donor mom Terra DeFoe encouraged her son, Emilio, to sign up as an organ donor when he turned 18. Little did she…

Gift of Life Michigan is once again looking to honor our partners throughout the state at our annual Champions Gala on Friday, April 1, 2022. We would not be as successful as we are without…

‘I’d do it again if I could, but you can only do it once’ When Ryan Miller needed a new kidney, there was a long line of people willing to donate one – including his…

Organ donation helps two families heal, grow and bond Twenty years ago, Dr. Michael Hagan was living on borrowed time. Hagan, now 71, knew he was ill, he just didn’t know how ill. He knew…

More than 95 percent of people on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry signed up to donate life while they were getting (or renewing) their driver’s license or state ID. Our incredible partners at the Michigan…

Aarolyn McCullough knew she would need a liver transplant more than 10 years before her miracle happened. Diagnosed in the late 1990s with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, a disease that attacks the bile ducts in the…

Mustafa Sharafi always wanted to be a father. He was granted that wish more than three years ago, when his son Zain was born, and said he has been grateful every day since. “To have…

Commerce Township woman finds passion in organ, tissue donation advocacy A desire to help others has turned into a life passion for Cathy Warren. Warren, 57, of Commerce Township, started working for the Donate Life…

Battle Creek woman beats cancer, achieves dreams with donated tissue Kristen Main faced an impossible choice before she even turned 13 years old. She mentioned a strange lump on her arm to her doctor during…

A lot of people called Jim Pixley ‘the Miracle Man,’ because of all the things he went through and everything he accomplished. Pixley, of Highland Township, passed away on April 28, 2020 at the age…

Donated tissue allows breast cancer survivor to quickly resume life, activity   With a history of breast cancer in her family, Sue Pilon was not about to take chances when she was diagnosed with the…

When news broke recently that a Denver transplant center disqualified a candidate for transplantation because she was not vaccinated for Covid-19, some Michigan residents asked how this might affect patients in our state. From the…

Muskegon mother marks two-year-anniversary of son’s death, organ donation Muskegon, MI – Amanda Garza has a printed version of the last text she received from her son, Nathanael. It reads: “I’m just thinking of you…

When Michael Love started to experience shortness of breath, the Southfield resident said he thought it’d be easy to treat. He was 50 years old at the time and noticed he had been slowing down…