LifeLINES

Dorrie Dils leads more than 350 people at Gift of Life Michigan. Her experience in donation dates back more than 30 years when, as a young nurse and donation coordinator, she helped families navigate the donation process. 

For this publication, Dorrie talked about her work as a leader of the country’s 10th largest organ procurement organization, and the state of donation in Michigan today. 

LifeLINES: Can you talk about what’s working and what organ and tissue donation means to you? 

Dorrie Dils: I really feel like my career and life’s work has been in humble service. I do it because I want to work in an industry that has purpose. I try to instill that in others here, and I want them to have that same sense of urgency. 

When I first started in this field, a woman gave me a picture of her 3-year-old son, who was waiting for a liver transplant. She told me to put it on my bulletin board. She said, “Every day when you come to work, ask yourself what you’re doing for my son.” I did think about him every single day and I still have his photo. He got a transplant and he’s probably 30-something years old now. 

People depend on us. 

Our work is a matter of life or death, so we cannot sit back — because people are dying on the waiting list. 

LifeLINES: What is going well with donation right now? 

Dorrie: A record number of people in Michigan donated organs in 2022 for the ninth consecutive year. We’re asking more families and they’re saying yes. 

We also helped a record number of donors give tissue last year. We didn’t just break that record; we exceeded the last record in 2019 by 14%. People are helping more people year after year. 

LifeLINES: What is the greatest challenge for Gift of Life? 

Dorrie: We’re breaking donation records, but the number of organs transplanted was slightly lower last year. We will always have some organs that, after recovery, we discover aren’t functioning well enough to be transplanted. 

But there are other reasons: The national allocation process is lengthy and cumbersome, and it sometimes results in an organ not being used. Our primary focus this year is resolving some issues to make sure more gifts from donors and their families are transplanted. Hopefully, we can partner with transplant centers and hospitals to make that happen. 

LifeLINES: The Michigan Organ Donor Registry is growing at its slowest pace in years. What’s happening? 

Dorrie: The biggest hurdle we have is when the potential donor isn’t registered. That’s when we sit down with the family, and, oftentimes, they don’t know what their loved one would want — and they say no. If the potential donor is registered, donation moves forward. So, we spend a lot of time on the Donor Registry — it’s really important. 

Our problem is that the Secretary of State — where 95% of all registrations originate — has made some changes. We now can take care of our tabs and other business online, and we can do it less often. I’m happy about that as a resident — we all benefit. But it has minimized the number of times the question about joining the Donor Registry is asked. That has significantly impacted our work. 

LifeLINES: What is Gift of Life doing about it? 

Dorrie: We are pivoting to reach Michigan residents in other ways. 

We’re investing a lot of time and energy into workplace partnerships (see Page 5). 

We’re working with companies and hospitals that are large employers. They’re sharing the Donor Registry link with employees by email. 

We’re also excited that the DNR provides a link to the Donor Registry after online purchases of hunting and fishing licenses. Legislation is in the works to add the registration question to Michigan income tax forms. We believe that, if passed, Michigan would be the first in the nation to offer the opportunity to register this way. 

LifeLINES: What does donation mean to families and what do you see as the future of the waiting list? 

Dorrie: I’ve met hundreds of donor families who — down the road — have a part of the story from their loved one’s death that most people never get. That becomes tremendously meaningful to them. 

So, when we face barriers to donation, I feel confident in pushing because if we chose not to talk to that family, we’ve made a decision for them that they might later regret. We shouldn’t be making those decisions — families should. 

I do see a day — and I hope it’s during my career — that people don’t die waiting for a transplant. The list will always be there, but I think at some point people won’t linger and die. That’s a travesty. There’s no reason someone should wait as long as some people do. Especially Brown or Black people, who wait particularly long. 

I’m very proud of the work we’re doing for families and for those patients, and at the end of the day we get to say, “Something I did today made a difference.”