Health First’s Tiger Team Promotes Life-Saving Organ Donation

Space Coast Daily


2012 CENTRAL FLORIDA HUMANITARIAN
Provides Awareness, Funding For Organ Donation

The term “Tiger Team,” which originated in the space industry, refers to a group of individuals united in solving a serious problem.

Health First’s Tiger Team, formed in 1990, is fiercely interested in educating the public about the importance of organ and tissue donation. The group was created after nurses Mary Gainey of Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital and Judi Cavazos of Health First Holmes Regional Medical Center heard of the concept during a conference of the International Association for Nurses Endorsing Transplantation.

Over the ensuing years, the Tiger Team has raised awareness of the need for organ transplants through venues that have ranged from health fairs and bone marrow drives to surf tournaments and a children’s calendar contest.

The Health First Tiger Team has also provided $100,000 in grants to families who have experienced or are awaiting organ donations for one of their members.
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Photo: THE TIGER TEAM: Top row, left to right â€" Suzanne Muliolis, Lions Eye Institute; Stephanie Cranfield, RN, Chair CCH Tiger Team; Leo Paradis, President, BCOTSG, Brevard County ORGAN, Inc., Heart & Kidney Transplant Recipient; and Barbara Seymour, RN, CCH Nurse Manager of Critical Care and Surgical Services. Bottom row, left to right â€" Father Bob Bruckart, Co-Chair Health First Tiger Team; Dee Rogers, Co-Chair Health First Tiger Team; Amelia Fuguro, RN, CCH, Emergency Department, Mary Gainey, Co-Founder of the Tiger Teams and Tammy Adams, CCH Administration, CCH Tiger Team Treasurer. (Image for SpaceCoastDaily.com)
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}

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