Increase Donor Lungs

Sharon McRee came up with a new and better way to ventilate the lungs of organ donors awaiting harvesting and the discovery ended up increasing the number of viable lung donations at her hospital from two out of 13 potential donors in the year before the protocol went into place to 12 out of 16 in the year following its implementation. The protocol has since been adopted by LifeShare Of The Carolinas, where it has helped to improve the lung transplant rate over time from 4% to 29-32%, significantly beating the 18% national average. LifeShare received a Quality Award from the North American Transplant Coordinators Organization/Association of Organ Procurement Organizations for the protocol, and Sharon was invited to go up on stage and accept on its behalf.