At LifeCenter Northwest (LCNW), collaborating with local hospitals and medical centers is an essential part of fulfilling our mission of working together to save lives through organ and tissue donation. These partnerships literally make donation possible. From patient care and coordination, and communication between various medical teams, we are dependent on our colleagues within the hospital to help facilitate the gift of life and serve the communities in our region. The importance of these relationships cannot be stressed enough, and here at LCNW we want to recognize our amazing donation partners for all their hard work. In an effort to do this, we established the LifeCenter Northwest LifeSaver Award, presented monthly, to honor those who have made outstanding efforts toward donation. Recipients demonstrate a commitment to improving donation outcomes by providing time, energy, and expertise to ensure the best possible donation program at their hospital. We are proud to announce our April LifeSaver Award winner, Michelle Sebern of Bonner General Health and Hospital (BGH).
 
Michelle SebernMichelle has been the Medical/Surgical/ICU nurse manager for less than a year, but she has already made a big impact on making donation possible at BGH, a hospital that has never facilitated an organ donor case before she stepped into her role. Her first case proved Michelle’s dedication to service and the donation process. A patient was set to be transferred to a larger hospital but was diverted due to a high volume of cases. The physician onsite was concerned about the donation occurring at BGH, but Michelle approached the obstacles with ease. By reaching out to technicians in radiology and connecting them to the technicians at the larger facility, the team was able to get the testing needed to declare brain death. Michelle also walked the team through the donation process with determination, and worked with several team members who were unsure of the donation happening. During this time, Michelle was also serving as the interim Chief Nursing Officer for a few days, furthering proving courageous leadership during times of elevated stress. She modeled a positive attitude, great spirit, and compassion that was contagious, and eventually was adopted by the rest of the staff. 
Thank you for championing donation and helping us save lives, Michelle!