LifeSaver Series: Dr. Karen Koo, Swedish First Hill Campus

We established the LifeCenter LifeSaver Award, presented monthly, to honor medical professionals who demonstrate a commitment to improving donation outcomes and/or culture through their actions, time, and energy. We are proud to announce our April LifeSaver Award winner, Dr. Karen Koo, Swedish First Hill Campus.

Having physician support in the hospital is vital to achieving the best outcomes for organ donation. While saving the lives of their patients is and will remain the first priority of the doctor, when death is imminent, offering care to help support the donation process can bring much healing to the family in a difficult situation and save lives.

Recently, at Swedish First Hill Campus, Dr. Karen Koo was instrumental in ensuring that the wishes of her patient, who had registered as an organ donor, were actualized.

The patient’s family had made the decision to withdraw life support, and a referral call was placed to LifeCenter Northwest.

Realizing that things may move quickly for the family and that evaluation for donation was still going on, Dr. Koo helped LifeCenter with a conversation with the family about the patient’s donation wishes.

Dr. Koo continued to care for her patient and the family, and worked collaboratively with the LifeCenter team throughout the donor case. She remained present during the removal of ventilator support and for the declaration of death to ensure that the patient’s organs could be recovered. It is a privilege to work with Dr. Koo and we are proud to honor her with the LifeSaver Award.