Establishing a Swifty funded tissue navigator in Dr. Monje’s lab at Stanford completes a coast-to-coast network that began in 2016 when Swifty helped start the post mortem tissue donation program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Last week I told you how the tissue navigator will allow Dr. Monje to focus more of her time and energy on research and finding cures for kids; this week I want to demonstrate how the Swifty tissue navigators at CHOP, Lurie Children’s in Chicago and soon to be Stanford will be working together to serve families and the mission of empowering research through tissue donation.
I want you to hear directly from one of the tissue navigators, Kella Tran-Du, (left) the navigator at CHOP. She received a call from a family in Montana just hours before the child’s death. I will let her tell the story…
“In a recent donation, we received the heartbreaking news that a child was dying from a brain tumor and the family’s wish was to gift their child’s tumor tissue to the post-mortem donation program. This family was located in the western region of the country. Our group at CHOP had facilitated east coast donations but wasn’t sure which resources to utilize on the west coast and we did not have time to research this.
Knowing Dr. Michelle Monje at Stanford has facilitated autopsy donations before, we asked her for assistance. Instantly, we received direction on which groups to approach. The collaborative effort
with Dr. Monje made the donation possible despite the last minute call and the key people being scattered across the country. Due to the nature of the post-mortem program, referrals are made at all hours of the day and night. Without collaborative systems like this in place these precious donations will not be possible. The rapport that has been established between our supporting teams highlights the success of this initiative — centering around the mission of helping to fulfill family wishes at incomprehensible times.”
Her supervisor, Dr. Angela Waanders, (right) says this about Kella, “I cannot emphasize enough how it’s young professionals like Kella who are helping to ensure our tissue donation program is a success. The senior scientists and clinicians are obviously indispensable but it’s people like Kella who are the unsung champions of this process.”
We are raising the funds needed to put someone as passionate and committed as Kella in Stanford’s lab.
Please consider making a donation today … in thanksgiving for Kella and all the unsung heroes who work tirelessly to change the course of pediatric cancer.
Your donation helps make that dream possible.
