Mariannette Miller-Meeks Details Experience With Organ Donation During Her Time As A Physician

5 months ago

During a House Energy Committee hearing before the Congressional Recess, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IO) spoke about her time in the medical field.

Transcript

00:00Dr. Miller-Meeks for her five minutes of questioning.

00:03Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank the witnesses of both panels for testifying before the subcommittee today.

00:11I probably have a unique perspective coming into this hearing.

00:14So, first and foremost, I was a newly made lieutenant at Walter Reed, where having been an emergency room nurse,

00:24I was a neurosurgical nurse working on a floor that had comatose patients, brain-dead patients,

00:31and talking with family members, doing studies to ensure they were brain-dead,

00:35and then talking to those family members about organ donation.

00:39Then I did that as an emergency room doctor, serving on trauma, doing a general surgery internship in a very busy hospital,

00:50Bexar County Hospital in San Antonio.

00:52And then finally, through my residency in ophthalmology.

00:55So, both as a nurse and as a physician, have been in those very delicate conversations with family members,

01:05determining first and foremost that their family member is in fact brain-dead and may not continue to have a viable life.

01:16And then as a physician and ophthalmologist, doing vision-saving corneal transplant surgery on children,

01:25on adults with chemical injury, or heritable diseases.

01:29And so, when I say that donation is only possible due to the public trust and the generosity of donor families,

01:37I know that firsthand.

01:38And following the September 24th, 2024 hearing, and the subsequent story regarding Kentucky's case in October,

01:46the Iowa donor network experienced a 78% increase in registry removal requests,

01:52with 193 requests compared to the same time in the previous year, in which we received 75 requests.

01:59And the sharp increase in registry removal requests following recent events clearly demonstrates how fragile this trust can be

02:07and how vital it is that we protect and restore it.

02:11And I know, Dr. Lynch, that that is also what you would like to do,

02:14and I know that's what OPN and UNOS wants to do as well.

02:18So, I have a little bit different history than other people,

02:23and I haven't removed from my driver's license, nor has my husband, that we're donors,

02:28and that we want to donate and provide that life-saving or sight-saving organ,

02:35if we're healthy enough to do so, to someone else, child or adult.

02:39And this is not a system that has been in place for a long time.

02:44I mean, the system that I worked at as a nurse and a physician,

02:49we didn't have the 2023 Securing U.S. Organ Procurement and Transportation Network, the OPTN Network.

02:56So, it's newly established, and I think it's unfortunate that we are going through a process now

03:02where there will be, as we learn from one another, recommendations and processes that need to have to be changed.

03:11Dr. Lynch, can you detail how much of the funding has been allocated to date

03:16and where that funding has gone that has been provided to HRSA to improve the systems?

03:22Sure. Thank you for your perspective.

03:25We share that in HRSA.

03:27This is something that we want the public to feel that it is, you know, we are worthy of trust in the system,

03:33and for those family members of individuals who have gone through the process,

03:36we want them to be able to feel consolation and pride that their loved ones made that choice.

03:44So, in terms of funding, before the Securing the U.S. OPTN Act, HRSA was limited by statute at $7 million.

03:51I believe in the last year it was $23 million that we spent since the Securing Act.

03:56We have undertaken several tasks.

03:59From an operations perspective, the most important is that we now have not just one operations contractor,

04:07the legacy one, we have a new contractor, AIR, which is providing support to the board,

04:12and that helps them to have independence from the rest of the system.

04:16We also conduct a lot of what we call discovery tasks or discovery contracts,

04:22which are really to get external expert opinion,

04:26and then from within that, pull from the community to understand all elements,

04:31logistics, allocation, policymaking, communications, technology.

04:38I have a bill, the Organ Donation Referral Improvement Act,

04:41which directs HHS to study and promote the widespread adoption of automated electronic referrals for organ donation.

04:48However, HRSA could initiate this transition on its own.

04:52Are you familiar with automated referral?

04:55And if so, have you worked with health systems and OPOs to further understand how it could be implemented on a wide scale?

05:01I'm familiar with the concept of automated donor referrals.

05:04I'm unfamiliar with your piece of legislation.

05:06I'd be happy to look at it.

05:08I think further collaboration, working together, standards and processes in place

05:13will help restore the trust of the American people in organ donation,

05:17which is an extraordinarily valuable service that we have.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks Details Experience With Organ Donation During Her Time As A Physician

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended