Navigating Organ Donation Discussions: Toby Campbell, Nikole Neidlinger, Samantha Taylor

While we have previously discussed brain death criteria on the GeriPal Podcast, we have yet to explore the complex landscape families face regarding organ donation. In this episode, we dive into the nuances of Donation after Brain Death (DBD) and Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD), and clarify the essential role of healthcare providers who are not part of an organ procurement organization.

In this episode of the GeriPal Podcast, we step into a space in serious illness care that is often misunderstood, overlooked, or reduced to a simple "call the organ donation network" checklist item.

Joining us are three experts to help us understand the process and our role in it: 

• Samantha (Sam) Taylor, a Donation Support Specialist and expert trainer on the donation request conversation

• Dr. Nikole Neidlinger, an abdominal transplant surgeon and medical director for the organ and tissue donation program at the University of Washington

• Dr. Toby Campbell, palliative care physician and host of the Extraordinary Conversations podcast, which is focused on organ donation for its first season.

We'd also like to send a big thank you to Toby as he was the one who recommended doing this podcast, and we'd encourage all of our listeners to check out Extraordinary Conversations.  I personally love episodes like this as it opens up a black box that I otherwise dont think about (similar to our Undertaker podcast with Thomas Lynch where we talk about what happens after someone dies).