ROWLETT, TX (June 14, 2011) – Lake Pointe Medical Center (LPMC) was presented with the 2010 Leadership Circle award, recognizing LPMC as one of the top 20 donor hospitals of the 178 hospitals that Transplant Services Center at UT Southwestern serves.
Representatives from the Transplant Services Center at UT Southwestern were in attendance to present the staff at Lake Pointe Medical Center with the 2010 Leadership Circle Award.
Vickie McNeel, Supervisor for Outreach, shared the following numbers with those in attendance:
In 2010, Lake Pointe Medical Center and our local community of patients provided 10 tissue donors. These donors made up the following:
• 10 Ocular donors
• 7 Bone donors
• 6 Skin donors
• 2 Heart Valve donors
• 2 Vessel donors
Since 2000, ocular donations from Lake Pointe Medical Center and our local community have provided:
• 74 Corneas for transplant
• 72 Texas recipients receiving transplants, with 36 residing in the Metroplex
• 62 area communities impacted
• 3 out-of-state recipients
• 3 international recipients
Lake Pointe has already had 3 donors to date in 2011.
Susan Fredrickson with Transplant Services Center, explained “It is a privilege to work with Lake Pointe Medical Center and the many great employees like Edie Jacobs, (add title), and Doreen Riccelli, Director of Education. Lake Pointe and the local community are great partners with us in helping to meet the local, national and international need of organ donation.”
Also in attendance at the presentation were Joyce Hawks and Sergio Espinosa who provided firsthand stories of how organ donation had touched their lives. Ms. Hawks’ shared moving memories about her late husband George who was a donor whose generosity has provided provided sight to two fortunate recipients. Mr. Espinosa has been a three-time cornea transplant recipient and will be married on July 3rd. He shared what a difference the gift of sight has made in his life, thanked all donors, and encouraged everyone to become a organ donor and give a lifelong gift to someone in need.
Lastly, Kathleen Tyre with the Royse City Lions Club shared that the keynote speaker at the 1925 Lions Club Convention was Helen Keller. At that meeting, Keller challenged the Lions Club members to be crusaders against the darkness that is blindness. To this day the Lions Club continues their efforts to end blindness and supports the great work that Lake Pointe Medical Center is doing to make a difference in this fight.
“We are extremely proud to receive the 2010 Leadership Circle Award recognizing Lake Pointe Medical Center as one of the top 20 hospitals of the 178 hospitals that UT Southwestern serves,” states J. Eric Evans, CEO of the Lake Pointe Health Network. “The moving accounts provided by the recipients and donor family members today serve as a reminder to us all of the difference we make by dedicating the time and resources to this important initiative. We appreciate the recognition and our partnership with the Transplant Services Center at UT Southwestern, and, most importantly, we encourage everyone to become an organ donor.”
ABOUT LAKE POINTE MEDICAL CENTER
Lake Pointe Medical Center is a 112-bed acute care hospital located at 6800 Scenic Drive in Rowlett. Lake Pointe Medical Center has been serving the residents of Rockwall, Rowlett, Royse City and the surrounding communities since 1987. The hospital provides a wide spectrum of medical services, including an emergency department with Fast Track services, a 14-bed intensive care unit, women’s services, a Level II and Level III NICU, interventional cardiology, diagnostic imaging, and eight operating rooms. With a medical staff of over 400 physicians, Lake Pointe Medical Center provides most specialty services. The hospital holds CIGNA Center of Excellence Designations for Laparoscopic Gall Bladder Removal and Vaginal Delivery. The hospital is designated as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission and a Level IV Trauma Center by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency, licensed by the state of Texas and certified for participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. To learn more about Lake Pointe Medical Center, visit www.lakepointemedical.com.
ABOUT TRANSPLANT SERVICES CENTER – UTSW Medical Center
Transplant Services Center is a non-profit, full service tissue and eye bank, regulated by the FDA, and accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks and the Eye Bank Association of America. It is Texas’s longest continuously accredited tissue and eye bank and one of the nation’s first three accredited tissue banks.
As part of University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Transplant Services Center provides corneas and a comprehensive selection of tissue allografts to hospitals and surgery centers throughout North Texas, and when supply permits, across the United States and around the world. For more information about Transplant Services Center go to www.completingthecircle.org, or call our Outreach Staff at 214-645-8361.