LifeSaver Award Series: Alex Park, RN, and Rachel Rodriguez, RN, VA Puget Sound Health Care System (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 Alex Park, RN, and Rachel Rodriguez, RN, who are both nurses at Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle.

Recently, this VA hospital was presented with its first-ever donation case. This presented many challenges for the hospital team as well as LifeCenter’s team, but Alex and Rachel were essential to making donation possible for this patient.

Alex and Rachel managed the hospital’s badging system, escorted LifeCenter team members, assisted with the VA’s Electronic Medical Record system, personally transported samples for tests and ultimately accompanied the donor to the OR.

“Alex and Rachel worked diligently to serve this veteran, their family and our team,” said Korri Shimizu, LifeCenter Hospital Development Program Manager. “Donation wouldn’t have been possible in this case without their willingness to learn and their dedication.”

Ultimately, this donor’s heart and liver were successfully transplanted, saving two lives.

Throughout this case, Alex and Rachel both demonstrated abundant Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect and Excellence—the five core values of the VA. Rachel is also now the co-chair of the hospital’s donor committee, working to further strengthen the donation culture and infrastructure at VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

We are proud to present Alex and Rachel with this LifeSaver Award for honoring this donor and donor family, making the gift of life possible despite their lack of familiarity with donation and dedicating themselves to establishing a positive donation culture at the VA.