Robin Westphal says she was shocked when she heard she won the 2023 Provincial Donation Champion Award from Ontario Health Trillium Gift of Life Network. She credits KHSC's ICU team for helping spark her passion for organ and tissue donation.
Credit
Matthew Manor
We’ve got some amazing news we’re incredibly honoured to share!
Join us in congratulating Robin Westphal, a social worker with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), for receiving the 2023 Provincial Donation Champion Award from Ontario Health Trillium Gift of Life Network!
A devoted advocate for organ and tissue donation, she credits the ICU team at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) for sparking her passion when she joined the unit two years ago.
“I’m completely shocked by the award,” beams Westphal.
“I didn’t know too much about organ and tissue donation before working in critical care, but it’s taught me how truly difficult it is to both give and receive. There are teams of nurses and physicians throughout the province working on matching donors and recipients during a challenging window of time.
“Working in the ICU at KHSC has made me deeply respect and appreciate the knowledge and compassion of the physicians and nurses I’m proud to work with.”
Part of her role as a social worker is to support critically ill patients and families during end-of-life care, which includes discussions about organ and tissue donation.
Always leading with compassion and empathy, Westphal liaises with Trillium Gift of Life Network and helps set up initial meetings.
“The patient may have signed their donor card in the past or due to the nature of their impending death, may qualify to be an organ donor. It can be an overwhelming amount of information for families at such a traumatic time and their psychological health is of utmost importance to me.
“Most families are grateful for the opportunity to meet with Trillium and discuss donation, as their loved one’s legacy lives on by giving someone else the gift of life. They’re also grateful to know their loved one’s death has meaning and their donation can help so many other people live.
“Eight people’s lives can be saved from a single person donating their organs. Up to 75 people can be saved from one single person donating their tissue. It’s a silver lining during a time of tragedy and grief.”
Westphal adds every time she hears back from a recipient or a donor’s family it holds a special place in her heart.
“A recipient I met in hospital told me he wakes up and thinks about his donor and their loved ones with gratitude every day. Hearing stories like that has an immense effect on me.
“I’m not only proud of the work I do, but I’m also honoured this is the place where I can make a difference and help give another person a second chance at life.”
April is Be A Donor Month. Help give the gift of life. Register at BeADonor.ca.
This is the place that cares for our region.
We provide care to a region of more than 500,000 people across southeastern Ontario and all the way north to James Bay. People come to us for care not available in their community, like heart and brain surgery, life support, stem cells, radiation and advanced imaging. We’re also a community hospital caring for the less acute needs of residents in the Kingston area.
