The Gift of Life Michigan

CEO Rich Pietroski is still passionate about the work they do and the lives they have touched over his three-year span at Gift of Life Michigan.

With over 3,100 people on the waiting list for organs ranging from kidneys, lungs, tendons and hearts, as well as a multitude of possible transferrable and useful body parts, the 170 employees are made up of highly specialized professionals ranging from laboratory scientists to work-from-home nurses.

On this particular day of filming, we were able to conduct a personal interviews with the donation coordinator team that are on the front lines of dealing with extremely delicate emotional discussions when a loved one has died. Crystal, Doug, Kim and Josh are amazing individuals who take great pride in what they do despite how challenging it can be.

As Josh said, “ Sometimes I have to be there with the donor at the time of their last breath because the family just can’t be.”

There are extraordinary people that deal in the realm of death and dying each and everyday.  But, in reality what they are really partaking in is the ability to help someone continue on with their life.  This simply means that a father, mother or child can have a chance to live from the loss of someone’s life.

Rich shared with us his own personal story. A few years ago Rich needed a new tendon in his shoulder. The doctor was going to use one from Rich’s hip but Rich inquired, “Why don’t we look at a donor? It wasn’t until later that I figured out that it came from a fallen Detroit police officer.”

We are thrilled we can include Gift of Life Michigan in this series about how we deal with the end of life issue.