October Cabinet Meeting
LEBW Report

LEBW Report for Council of Governors October 3, 2015
Jerry Wtlle, Presldent and Darlce langham, Exec. Director

The Lions Eye Bank has gone thrugh some restructuring in order to ensure more efficiency and effectiveness. The entire team has recommitted themselves to our mission of "giving the Gift of Sight'' and we are excited to say we've employed some great new staff members, and have strengthened our entire team.

One milestone we've reached is that of beginning processing operations. As of Septemhr 1, we are now pre-cutting corneal tissue for our surgeons. These expanded services are strategically phased into our program to ensure the best quality. We began with cutting a small percentage of tissue, and the percentage will increase in increments, until all of these cuts are done in-house, overthe next 6-9 months. lt has been reported that this process is going extremely well, and we are excited about future possibilities.

With this recommitment to our mission, the team at the eye bank is constantly considering opportunities of expanding our partnerships with other eye banks, as well as with researchers. When a cornea is unable to be transplanted for reasons unknown until proper evaluation can be done after the recovery, they oftentimes have been discarded in the past, if there were no other outlets. with the new rnantra being "Every cornea...Every time", there is even more focus on finding additional outlets, in order to avoid telling a family whose loved one so graciously gave this prccious gift, that we were unable to find placement for the tissue.

Our donor recovery activity has continued to stay up. ln my last report, I stated that QTR 2 donor recoveries had actually increased by 33%, as compared to QTR 1, and that in June, there was a record recovered number of donor recoveries in one single month, and that number was an astounding 100. I am very happy to report, those numbers have continued to stay up. ln July, thare were actually 103 donor recoveries performed, and in August, our eye/cornea tissue placement has also continued to increase through the efforts of our eye bank team. ln the first 6 months of the year, we placed an incredible 773 tissues. But, just in July & August, we've placed 366, so we look to be on track to place 1,098 tissues for the last 6 months of 2015. 753 of those being for transplant purposes, as compared to 572 for the first 6 months, for an increase of 24%.

Our Donor Family Support Program has been up and running since July, and the program is going very well, as we support our donor families for a period of a year (and beyond, if needed) after their loved one's donation. Much of that is done through communication and grief resources...just continuing the recognition of their loved one's gift. We are also excited to say we've connected many families to their loved one's recipients. This is something we are committed to doing as so many families find this to be very cathartic, almost an additlonal healing mechanism for them. Our recipients are expressing that this is very therapeutic for them as well.

ln June, July and August our Lions transporters had record months with over 350 individual transports performed getting tissue to our surgeons as well as to the eye bank from recovery sites. This tracks with the increased number of donated tissue and increased placement of surgical tissue.

Some of our staff are also involved with Donate Life Wisconsin and are making visits to Dept. of Motor Vehicle Licensing offices in the state, working to increase numbers of people on the Donor Registry through this excellent partnership. We thank the Lions/Lioness for their continued promotion of the Donor Registry.

Thank You again for all your support!