LifeSaver Award Series: Paul Niemi, ARNP, Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill (Seattle)

Each month, LifeCenter Northwest selects a LifeSaver Award winner. This award honors and recognizes those who demonstrate a commitment to improving donation outcomes and culture through their actions, time and energy.

We are pleased to present this month’s LifeSaver Award to Paul Niemi, ARNP, of Swedish Medical Center, Cherry Hill in Seattle. Paul was extremely compassionate and thoughtful in supporting a donor and their family during a recent organ donation case.

During this case, Paul collaborated with the LifeCenter Northwest team on the pre-donation conversation huddle, reached out to the attending physician to initiate brain death testing, supported the patient hemodynamically and guided the patient’s spouse through many end-of-life discussions.

After the patient was given a grave prognosis, Paul offered to do anything needed to ensure that this registered donor could be honored—giving the patient’s family something positive to cherish amidst this tragic situation.

Paul demonstrated all of LifeCenter Northwest values (collaboration, courage, integrity and service) by working proactively with our team while showing compassion and empathy for the family. Paul honored the patient’s autonomy and learned as much as he could from our staff to help the case move forward, earning the universal praise of our clinical staff who worked on this case.

Thanks to Paul and his exceptional support, we were able to give the gift of life—recovering the donor’s lungs, both kidneys and a rare split liver, ultimately saving the lives of five people. In addition, the donor family has already heard from one of their loved one’s organ recipients, who expressed deep gratitude to have received a second chance at life.

We are proud to present Paul with this month’s LifeSaver Award for going above and beyond to honor this donor and support the donor family, helping them find light and meaning in the gift of life.