Content provided courtesy of Hospital of Central Connecticut

Posted: 28 October 2009

Joseph Kambe, M.D., Hospital of Central Connecticut (HCC) director of Surgical Critical Care and Trauma, was honored recently as one of 11 recipients nationwide for his efforts in organ donation and transplantation.

      Kambe was selected Region 1 Champion of the Donation and Transplantation Community of Practice for his ongoing commitment and passion to enhancing donation and transplantation, and working with regional colleagues to advance such practice. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration selected Kambe as a champion.

      In late September, he and other HCC staff members attended the National Learning Congress Medal of Honor Awards Ceremony in Grapevine, Texas.

      In addition to this award, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized the hospital for the fourth consecutive year with the Health Resources Services Administration Medal of Honor for the outstanding work of its ICU staff in assuring availability of organs.

      At HCC, staff members work with families of potential donors to discuss the often very difficult concept and process of organ donation.Organs most often retrieved at HCC by transplant surgeons from hospitals throughout the country are lungs, heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, small bowel. Kambe says organ donors are relatively rare and more than 100,000 patients in the United States are on a waiting list for an organ, mostly a liver or kidney.

‑‑ 30 –