LifeLink Foundation

Lifelink Foundation organ procurement organizations:lifelink of Georgia (llga) facilitates organ recovery in the state of Georgia as well as two counties in south carolina, aiken and edgefield counties.lifelink of Florida (llfl) facilitates organ recovery in 15 Florida counties, hillsborough, pinellas, hernando, pasco, polk, manatee, desoto, glades, highlands, sarasota, charlotte, hardee, lee, hendry and martin counties. (continued on schedule o)lifelink of puerto rico (llpr) facilitates organ recovery in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands.focused on saving lives:thanks to the generosity of organ donors and their families, Lifelink of Florida, Lifelink of Georgia and Lifelink of puerto rico facilitated 2,130 life-saving organ transplants during the 2021-2022 fiscal year. Respectively, efforts by Lifelink of Florida resulted in 842 organs transplanted from 313 donors, Lifelink of Georgia 1,048 organs transplanted from 387 donors and Lifelink of puerto rico 240 organs transplanted from 99 donors. The opos credit continuous process improvement, staff commitment to excellence, strong hospital and community partnerships, public education, donor family support and the forethought of individuals who chose to join their respective state donor registries as key contributors to another successful year.lifelink organ recovery center celebrates one year at piedmont atlanta hospital:on march 29, 2021, piedmont atlanta hospital and Lifelink of Georgia officially opened the first designated Lifelink organ recovery center (orc) in Georgia, and one of only a few in the nation. There were 672 organs transplanted from 207 donors resulting in an average of 3.25 organs transplanted per donor. Hrsa's "workplace partnership for life" hospital campaign:approximately 192 local hospitals throughout the Foundation service area earned national recognition for increasing organ, eye and tissue donor registrations through the workplace partnership for life (wpfl) hospital organ donation campaign. Lifelink recruited and partnered with hospitals between october 2021 and april 2022 to plan and conduct organ donation education and donor registration activities. Health resources and services administration's (hrsa) "workplace partnership for life" hospital campaign recognizes the efforts of hospitals that work in partnership with their local organ, tissue and eye recovery organizations to support education about donation in their communities.

Lifelink transplantation immunology laboratory:during the 2021-2022 fiscal year, the Lifelink transplantation immunology laboratory facilitated 746 lifesaving transplants for the seven transplant centers served, including tampa general hospital in tampa, Florida, largo medical center, largo, john hopkins all children's hospital, st. petersburg, cleveland clinic Florida, weston, broward health medical center, fort lauderdale, memorial regional hospital, hollywood and joe dimaggio children's hospital, hollywood. They also evaluated 2,475 transplant patients, 480 living donors and 714 deceased donors, and conducted 39,337 transplant related tests. (continued on schedule o)the 746 lifesaving transplants can be broken down as follows: - 109 hearts - 54 livers - 44 lungs - 529 kidneys - 10 kidney/pancreas

Lifelink tissue bank:lifelink tissue bank is the largest non-profit tissue bank in the southeastern united states and provides tissue allografts for orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgical specialists and placental allografts for wound care. Though our skilled team is equipped to recover all life-enhancing tissue grafts, we specialize in the processing and distribution of spine, sports and general orthopedic grafts. (continued on schedule o)lifelink tissue bank recognizes that each allograft placed has a backstory filled with medical professionals, community partners, Lifelink staff, and most important a donor and their family, who make life-enhancing tissue transplantation a reality for patients in need. Lifelink tissue bank is committed to providing excellence in education through accredited professional education programs for healthcare personnel who care for tissue recipients, to ensure the magnitude of such gifts is recognized. Tissues recovered by Lifelink tissue bank:skin: primarily used to assist in the healing of burn patientsbone: used for a variety of orthopedic and spinal procedurestendons: often used on sports-related injuriesvalves: used commonly in heart valve replacement surgeriesbirth tissue: placental tissue donated by new mothers after the birth of their baby and the only tissue recovered and processed by Lifelink tissue bank from a living donor, is utilized as a wound coveringtissues processed and distributed by Lifelink tissue bank:spinal grafts: designed to promote fusion and help patients who suffer from severe and/or chronic pain to lead normal livessports grafts: used in joint restoration procedures to help restore movement to patients suffering from pain and discomfort that prevents them from enjoying active lifestyles.general orthopedic grafts: help to promote bone formation, optimize healing and accelerate a patient's return to normal function.fresh amniotic birth tissue to treat diabetic foot ulcers and other difficult to close wounds.

Research and development:the primary goal of Lifelink is to recover lifesaving organs and tissues for transplantation. However, there are instances when those organs and/or tissues are unable to be transplanted, in which case they can still be directed to help others in need through research initiatives. Research and development aids Lifelink efforts to maximize all gifts of donation with a shared goal to benefit donation and transplantation outcomes through scientific endeavors.

Public education:public and professional education in Georgia, Florida and puerto rico:the public affairs and multicultural donation education program teams works to provide donation education and increase donor registration amongst various audiences including driver license issuing offices, hospitals, youth, faith and minority communities. Lifelink utilizes volunteers throughout our service areas to share donation and transplant stories while encouraging individuals to make a lifesaving decision by joining a state donor registry. Virtual meetings and public education are ongoing but face-to-face public outreach was re-introduced, post pandemic, in april 2022.social mediain today's digital age, Lifelink understands the importance of engaging individuals through social media with the donate life message. Currently Lifelink maintains active accounts on facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and linkedin. In Florida and Georgia, the majority of donor designations took place during driver license transactions through state and local driver license issuing offices. In fact, 97% of registrations in Florida and 98% of Georgia registrations occurred within the driver license transaction process. The remainder of registrations in Florida and Georgia happened either through a national registration application, online or in person. Additionally. Georgia allows individuals to register their decision when purchasing or renewing a hunting, fishing, or trapping license through the Georgia department of natural resources online licensing system. In puerto rico, those percentages are much different, with 100% of registrations being handled in person or online.