By Caroline Miller, Senior Marketing & Communications Specialist
Melissa Eichenlaub has worked in the field of health care since graduating high school, but she wanted to do more. One day she ran into a friend of hers working in a hospital who was a procurement transplant coordinator and had mentioned taking the next step and working at Lifebanc. Ten years later, Melissa is fulfilling her wish to make a difference in countless lives.
As the Manager of Donor Referral Services at Lifebanc, she has spent nearly a decade ensuring that the gift of donation is possible for families across Northeast Ohio. Through Lifebanc’s close collaboration with Eversight, Melissa and her team help provide countless individuals with restored sight and renewed hope.
“It's a very rewarding field,” she said. “Even though we're dealing with death on a daily basis, there is good that comes out of the work we do. So, it is very meaningful to me, and I continue to strive for that every day.”
Serving as Northeast Ohio’s only nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization, Lifebanc began more than 35 years ago as one of the original seven independent organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the United States.
In our shared service area, Eversight works with Lifebanc to collect and share information on potential donors to maximize the gifts of life, sight and mobility.
Building connections through compassion
Melissa’s journey at Lifebanc began as a donor referral coordinator, a role that introduced her to the profound connections formed through donation. Over the years, she transitioned into family support, training and education, and now leads a team of 24 donor services specialists.
Her team handles every incoming referral from hospitals, coroners, medical examiners, and hospice facilities, ensuring that every potential donor is given the opportunity to leave a lasting legacy.
Lifebanc works with over 80 hospitals in Northeast Ohio and Melissa’s team is trained to take those incoming calls, conduct a thorough medical review and determine eligibility of a donor. A different donor services specialist will then approach the family to offer them the chance for their loved one to give the gift of organ, tissue and/or cornea donation.
“If it’s an eye only donor, our team will notify Eversight that we do have a consented donor and at that point, the Eversight Donation Support Center will then give us an acceptance number, which is the unique identifier for every potential donor, and then they'll dispatch a technician,” she said.
Eversight and Lifebanc communicate on a daily basis to maximize the gift of donation in Northeast Ohio.
“We’re taking that chance with an individual who is probably having one of the worst days of their life,” Melissa said. “We have to establish that rapport and trust to offer them that opportunity and for them to see what good can come out of such a horrific accident or unexpected loss.”
Supporting families and staff alike
One of the key aspects of Melissa’s role is fostering a supportive environment for her team, ensuring they feel equipped to have sensitive conversations with families.
“We have an open-door policy that if they get off a call and they need to talk to someone, they can always reach out to either myself or one of our supervisor educators,” Melissa said. “We hold a monthly consent discussion with our team of approachers so they know they're not alone in those situations and maybe another coordinator had something very similar that they could relate to.”
Melissa understands the emotional toll of the work her team does every day and encourages open discussions about difficult cases, helping staff process their experiences while continuing to offer compassion and guidance to grieving families.
Lifebanc’s partnership with Eversight is crucial in ensuring that families who say ‘yes’ to eye donation have a seamless and meaningful experience. When a family consents to eye donation, Melissa’s team notifies Eversight, who then facilitates the next steps in the cycle of sight, finding a role for that donor tissue. Donor tissue will be determined suitable for transplantation or research and clinical education and training.
These invaluable gifts restore sight, drive groundbreaking discoveries with the potential to transform vision care and treatments, and educate and train surgeons all over the world so they can make vision a reality to more people throughout their careers.
“I think it's extremely important because we work very well together, but we also give additional opportunities—whether it’s through transplantation or research,” Melissa said about the partnership. “Any opportunity for a family to have their loved one be a hero through donation is invaluable.”
By empowering her team to have difficult conversations with donor families and feeling the confidence and compassion to do so, Melissa is impacting countless lives. However, the one thing she misses from being a coordinator is speaking to families.
“The best part of the job is, and it's something that I don't do as often, is get back on the phones,” she said. “That is one thing I truly do miss in this role is talking to those families, but I like to encourage our staff and foster them to develop those good relationships and develop a rapport with those families.”
Creating a lasting legacy through donation
“It’s almost like an endless opportunity for a family, for their loved one to have a legacy,” she said. “Restoring sight for up to two individuals, saving lives through organ donation or healing through tissue donation—it’s giving them that chance to live on through others.”
Melissa believes that without the communication and solid relationship between Lifebanc and Eversight, the additional opportunities that Lifebanc can give to families, like research and education, wouldn’t be possible.
“For tissue donation, there are not a lot of research opportunities within the organization,” Melissa said. “But that is something that Eversight does offer.”
Eversight is a full-service eye and vision Research & Development partner committed to embracing unbridled curiosity, sound scientific inquisition and bench-to-bedside innovations to prevent, treat and cure blinding eye conditions. The Eversight Research & Development team is a driving force behind Eversight’s vision of one day seeing a world without blindness.
A community united in saving lives
Melissa encourages everyone to have a conversation with their loved ones about making the decision to register as an eye, organ and tissue donor.
“There are so many individuals waiting for transplants—organ, tissue and eye,” Melissa said. “Talking about donation with your loved ones makes it easier for families when the time comes. It’s all about increasing awareness and making that decision to be a hero.”
Melissa and her team at Lifebanc, together with Eversight, are dedicated to ensuring that every donation opportunity is honored. Their commitment to supporting families, working with hospital partners, and maintaining strong communication with Eversight underscores the importance of collaboration in the donation and transplantation process.
“This is not an industry that everyone can be a part of, but with the support of our referral services team, our colleagues and our partners like Eversight, we push each other to be better,” Melissa said. “Without these relationships, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. It’s a close, family-oriented industry, and those relationships are key.”
