The Honor Walk
Georgia hospitals are starting to implement the “Honor Walk” for organ and tissue donors as they are wheeled into the operating room.
An Honor Walk is the solemn yet breathtaking moment when friends, family, and hospital staff line the halls as a person, one who made the decision to be an organ and/or tissue donor, is taken to the operating room to save lives.
Hospitals across the country have honored donors this way privately in the past, but today’s social media opportunities have raised interest in hospitals making this ceremony more public. Honor Walks openly recognize a person or their family’s decision to donate and to enhance the public’s understanding of the importance of organ donation.
This is a hospital led initiative that is fully supported by LifeLink of Georgia. Currently, two hospitals in Georgia, Augusta University Medical Center and Northeast Georgia Health System have implemented Honor Walks at their hospitals, but others throughout Georgia are interested and in the coming weeks/months, LifeLink will help guide their process to offer this honor to families in their respective hospitals. The staff at LifeLink is thrilled that area hospital partners are interested in honoring donor families in this unique way.
GMC hosts World Stroke Day conference
Monday, October 29th was World Stroke Day and in recognition, Gwinnett Medical Center hosted nationally-recognized speakers to provide critical information on issues related to acute neuroscience conditions and stroke management, prevention and rehabilitation.
The November 2nd conference was designed to unite physicians, residents, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses and other healthcare professionals around best in class stroke and neuroscience care. Stroke continues to rank as the 5th leading cause of death and ranks 1st in the leading cause of preventable disability.
This annual conference hosted by GMC reaffirms the organization’s community commitment and to achieving positive patient outcomes.
WellStar and NWGA Heart Walk
WellStar was recently involved with the Northwest Georgia Heart Walk and 5K Heart Run. WellStar was a corporate sponsor and staff participated in and volunteered at the event to keep hearts in Northwest Georgia.
Northside’s Sports Medicine Network
Northside Hospital’s newly launched Sports Medicine Network is already growing. The program has added two experts, Dr. Sakr and Dr. Charek, and a new location in Midtown. In addition, they have launched a new program specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of concussions.
Dr. Mark Sakr has been named director of non-operative sports medicine for the newly formed Sports Medicine Network. He is board certified in family and sports medicine and provides diagnosis and care for sports-related injuries including fractures sprains, tendon injuries, concussions and other medical conditions in athletes.
Dr. Sakr has extensive experience treating athletes of all ages and skill levels including pediatric, high school, college, professional and Olympic athletes. He currently serves as a team physician for USA Men’s Rugby 15s National Team and Olympic Rugby 7s Men’s and Women’s Teams, as well as numerous high schools in the Greater Atlanta area.
Dr. Daniel Charek, another new provider at the Northside Hospital Sports Medicine Network, is a fellowship-trained, licensed neuropsychologist, who specializes in the assessment and management of concussions in athletes and non-athletes. Dr. Charek sees both adult and pediatric patients, having worked with recreational, high school, college and professional athletes.
Dr. Charek performs comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations, including the assessment of cognitive skills such as memory, attention, reasoning and reaction time, in order to establish baselines for each individual, and in the case of a head injury, diagnose the extent of the injury and track treatment progress. He uses the most up-to-date tools and assessments to identify specific areas of deficit secondary to concussion and customize management plans based on the unique needs of each patient.
