![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.piercecountywa.gov\/executive\/files\/2018\/03\/Jan-with-Quilt.jpg\")
There is a strong mandate for donation in Washington.\u00a0 Almost 86% of Washington drivers have chosen to be donors.\u00a0 There are state laws that require cooperation between medical examiners and donor agencies.\u00a0 There are also complex rules published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that regulate every aspect of cornea and tissue donation, including relatively short periods of time after death when corneas can be recovered.<\/p>\n
With some exceptions, such as patients admitted to a hospital for a natural disease, the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office is notified of all deaths in Pierce County.\u00a0 It is the only real-time registry of such deaths.\u00a0 It is our job to determine which of those deaths requires investigation, and to perform that investigation.\u00a0 Our investigative tools include scene visits, medical record and other database searches, interviews with family and law enforcement officers, and\u2014ultimately, some sort of examination, up to and including an autopsy.<\/p>\n
Yet therein lies a conflict.\u00a0 We have a statutory and ethical obligation to cooperate with recovery agencies, but if we perform a full autopsy without consideration of donation, it can lead to compromise in the quality of the recovered tissue.\u00a0 There are other conflicts as well\u2014for example, both groups are operating under significant time constraints.\u00a0 Out of a series of discussions over a period of months, came a ground-breaking idea\u2014cooperation.\u00a0 By working together in the same facility, each group can meet its goals without compromise, and no Pierce County family is denied the opportunity to donate.<\/p>\n
If you come into the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office today, you will find a beautiful quilt, but you will also find a wonderful cooperative arrangement between partner agencies.\u00a0 We share information, space, ideas, and goals.\u00a0 We work together to make sure the intent of every Pierce County citizen who wishes to donate life is carried out. Death investigation is not compromised, and sometimes happens a little faster than it used to; nor is there any compromise to the quality of donated tissue.<\/p>\n
In 2016, this cooperative program yielded 357 cornea donors, with a very high percentage suitable for transplant.\u00a0 There were also 128 tissue donors, resulting in life-saving or life-improving grafts for almost 16,000 recipients.\u00a0 Many people are seeing again, walking again, recovering from burns or other injuries as a direct result of the work of the Pierce County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.\u00a0 There are many family members of donors who can take comfort in knowing their loved one made a final gift that changed lives.<\/p>\n
The staff of the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office have difficult jobs.\u00a0 When we come to work, we are focused on death all day, every day.\u00a0 It is important work, because unbiased death investigation strengthens society, but it is still hard. Thanks to our partnerships with SightLife and two tissue recovery agencies, we have another rewarding part of our mission\u2014helping to fulfill the final wishes of those Pierce County citizens or their families who wish to donate the gift of life.\u00a0 Jan\u2019s quilt reminds us of that important role.\u00a0 The squares of that quilt, representing individual donors, have been sewn together into a fabric that unifies those donors into a powerful symbol of hope.\u00a0 I am proud of the staff of the Medical Examiner\u2019s Office for their roles in these life-changing partnerships, and proud to be one of them!<\/p>\n
Dr. Thomas Clark, M.E.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For thousands of years, quilting has brought people together.\u00a0 Spanning centuries and cultures, groups of people have gathered to make quilts to stay warm, to preserve their history and to decorate their homes.\u00a0 It is an important part of our American heritage.\u00a0 My grandmother saved empty, brightly colored feed sacks, as did her friends, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38509],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n