To boost organ donations Swedish team webcasts and twitters from Mt. Rainier

In an effort to raise awareness of the need for organ donations, a team from Swedish Medical Center and LifeCenter Northwest Wednesday used Twitter and a live webcast Wednesday to broadcast their message from the top of Mount Rainier.

To connect to the Web, the team hauled a ten-pound “social media backpack” containing a satellite phone, laptop, web camera and other gear that makes live webstreaming from remote locations possible.

Nationwide, about 108,000 people are currently waitlisted on the organ transplant recipient list, and roughly 18 of those waiting to receive donations die each day, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Careful harvesting of organs and tissue make it possible for an organ donor to help more than 50 recipients on the waiting list.

The webcast went online at 5 p.m. yesterday as planned, but high winds interfered with the audio.

The team will get another chance, however: organizers plan to make the climb an annual event.

A recording of the webcasts as well as the Twitter discussion are below:

Tags: Organ Transplant, Seattle, Swedish Medical Center, Transplant, Transplantation

Category: News, Seattle Children's, Surgery