Piedmont Atlanta Hosp. and LifeLink open the only organ recovery center in the state
Click here for updates on this story
ATLANTA (WGCL) — Two medical powerhouses teamed up to open the first-of-its-kind medical center in the state.
According to Piedmont Atlanta Hospital officials, a new LifeLink Organ Recovery Center will be located within the hospital. It was created through a partnership between Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and LinkLink.
The new facility is the first organ recovery center in the state, and one of few in the nation.
The brand new, 9,588-square-foot building has two operating rooms, six ICU bays, a perfusion lab and two private rooms for donor families.
A hospital official said the new center was designed with donors and their families at top-of-mind. The facility, according to a hospital spokesperson, “will create an innovative organ recovery process that has been shown to improve donation and transplant outcomes, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.”
In addition, the center will have an area where donors and their families will receive state of the are care.
“The opening of the LifeLink Organ Recovery Center at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital marks an important step forward for Georgians who give the gift of life through donation, organ and tissue donor families, transplant recipients, along with hospital and transplant center partners,” said Dustin T. Diggs, FACHE, Senior Vice President/Executive Director, LifeLink of Georgia.
“Having dedicated space and staff members who are devoted to this life-saving mission, will increase expertise and efficiency to better serve our community and save lives.”
The on-site kidney perfusion lab – will help increase the number and quality of organs that are transplanted from each donor, fully honoring each donor’s gift, an official said.
“Many families find a degree of comfort in knowing that their loved one is able to become a donor and help others,” said Jon Hundley, M.D., Surgical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at Piedmont Transplant Institute and LifeLink of Georgia Associate Medical Director.
“By managing donors in a way that leads to increased organs transplanted, we will be able to most fully honor their incredible gifts, and to help more people who are waiting for transplant.”
The number of people awaiting an organ transplant in Georgia is significant.
According to LifeLink:
More than 4,400 Georgians are waiting for a transplant
Each year, almost 1,000 Ga.’s listed for transplant die without getting one
341 Ga. organ donors provided 1,030 organs for transplant during calendar year 2020
In 2020, a record number of 515 kidneys were transplanted
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
