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Michigan’s organ and tissue procurement program is taking precautions to protect staff, patients and the community Dorrie Dils, CEO of Gift of Life Michigan, recently announced the organization would require COVID-19 vaccination for all staff, beginning Sept….

Fathers and daughters often share a unique bond, but for Ralph and Kristen Mutrynowski, that connection is even stronger. Ralph, now 70 and a Rochester Hills resident, donated a kidney to his daughter in 2014….

Jud Lynch knew he would need two things: a haircut and a kidney transplant. The 68-year-old Grand Rapids man just didn’t expect to get them both from the same person. He was diagnosed with IGA…

Two decades ago, Mark Otto would’ve been happy to gain just one more year of life. Then 34, his liver was failing and he was plagued by chronically itchy skin. He was jaundiced and extremely…

Candice Desjarlais remembers the exact moment she decided to donate a kidney to her sister-in-law, Thelma. Thelma had just finished a five-and-a-half hour dialysis treatment, with Candice sitting with her to keep her company. Candice…

Nancy Banks was just finishing up a dialysis treatment when her phone started to ring. She didn’t recognize the number and was going to ignore it because the clinic had a strict no-calls policy. A…

Sarah Ann Scantamburlo has learned to live life to the fullest and make the most of whatever circumstances fate throws her way. “I feel like so many people wait for tomorrow, what they deem as…

Shane Sena was dedicated to his family and friends and enjoyed working on cars. “He was a big brother and a little brother. He was loved by his siblings. He doted on them,” said his…

Phil Laske remembers his brother, Joe, as a nice guy and jack of all trades. “He was very mechanically inclined,” said Phil, who works in the mailroom at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo. “He fixed…

Rebecca Anderson has been able to watch her daughter get married, graduate from Michigan State University and earn a master’s degree. She has traveled to the Mediterranean and celebrated her 30th anniversary with her husband,…

Heather Luchies had long known she would need a kidney transplant. Fortunately, when the time came, a donor was closer than she had anticipated. In fact, she had married him nearly two decades earlier. Now…

Katy Rozman has a message for young transplant recipients or young people waiting for a new life-saving organ: you are not alone. “Sometimes all we need is someone to relate to and I don’t always…

Murphy Ainsworth was always fit, healthy and active – an energetic athlete who is remembered by family and friends as positive and carefree, with an easy-going smile. “He was really loved by everybody,” said his…

Aimee Cruz would be the first person to tell you she’s lucky to be alive. Originally from Puerto Rico, the Ann Arbor resident has had three liver transplants in her life and is grateful for…

Leah Howell celebrates two birthdays on the same day every year. One is hers, the other is her donated kidney, which she received the day after her birthday more than 16 years ago. She named…

Stephen May had three words that he lived by: Everybody Love Everybody. He initially took it from the 2008 Will Ferrell movie Semi- Pro, but he fully adopted it into his life at Rockford High…

Kay Walters just celebrated her 70th birthday. Later this year, she’ll mark an even more significant milestone: her 24th year living with a donated heart. “I can’t believe I’m this old,” she said with a…

‘It’s been the thing that’s kept me going,’ daughter says Marty Townsend never met a stranger. “He could talk to anybody,” said his daughter, Kimberly. “He was just friendly with everybody. He could take a…

The medical community continues to learn more about the 2019 SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, and that could bring renewed hope for the thousands of people waiting for a new life-saving organ. A previous Covid-19 infection is no…

Last year marked a new beginning for Keisha Dulin. The 41-year-old Canton resident is continuing to heal after receiving a new heart in 2020 – after four years waiting for a new one. “I am…

Robert “Bobby” Ramos was a hard worker with a creative side. “He was always doing something creative,” his father, Robert, said of his son, who died at the age of 23 from a head injury…

Last year, Acacia Walter-Rooks accomplished something she wasn’t sure she’d be able to do: graduate high school. Now a freshman at Calvin University, Walter-Rooks had both of her kidneys removed when she was a child…

‘There’s a reason for it, and I think my reason is to help others.’ When a severe headache sent Sonya Cook to the doctor, she hardly expected a life-changing diagnosis. “I never had headaches before,…

Gift of Life Michigan is celebrating a milestone this year: the 50th anniversary of our founding. Founded in 1971 by four surgeons who wanted to develop a more efficient way to get life-saving organs to…

A group of metro Detroit students have made quite a difference for the Gift of Life Foundation in 2020. Key2Finesse, a student-led nonprofit organization, generated $75,000 for the Gift of Life Foundation through a year-long…

Like everything else this year, the Gift of Life HOSA Challenge was a little different than it has been in the past. The third annual challenge, which pits future health professionals – from different Health…

What makes a champion? In the organ and tissue donation realm, there are so many to choose from. At Gift of Life Michigan, we consider everyone who signs up on the Organ Donor Registry, anyone…