The operating room has been a familiar place for Nicole for most of her adult life – but the work she does there today has its roots in a decision she made before she was even old enough to vote.
Just one month shy of her 18th birthday, Nicole enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. Her father had served, her sister was already serving, and the structure and discipline of military life appealed to her.
“I have a military way of thinking,” Nicole recalled. “I’m direct and organized, and I just thought it was for me. So, I took that leap.” That leap led to a career as a surgical technician, assisting surgeons in the operating room. It also helped prepare her for a different kind of service.
Today, nearly twenty years after joining Mid-America Transplant, Nicole is an Organ Recovery Coordinator who helps make the gift of organ donation possible. As Veterans Day approaches, Nicole reflects on the values that have stayed with her throughout both careers and what it means to serve others, whether in uniform or in the operating room.
Finding a New Way to Serve
Before joining Mid-America Transplant, Nicole worked in the operating room at a hospital in St. Louis. It was there that she first experienced the organization’s work from the hospital side of the organ donation process.
What stood out wasn’t only the work itself. It was the people doing it.
During one of her final organ donor cases at the hospital, Nicole worked alongside several Mid-America Transplant employees, including Brian, whose professionalism and kindness left a lasting impression.
“Every time I dealt with Mid-America Transplant employees coming to our hospital for organ cases, they were always professional and friendly and willing to educate you,” Nicole said.
Those experiences helped convince her to pursue an opportunity with the organization.
The transition wasn’t easy. Nicole remembers the intensive hands-on training and the challenge of learning an entirely new set of responsibilities. With time, the pieces began to fall into place. Nearly two decades later, she’s still working alongside Brian, who continues to demonstrate the same professionalism and compassion that initially drew her to Mid-America Transplant.
“I’ve really come to love the job and the people,” she said. “Especially the people.”
Bringing Integrity, Teamwork and Compassion to Organ Recovery
As an Organ Recovery Coordinator, Nicole plays a critical role in the final stages of the organ donation process.
After a donor has been clinically evaluated and organs have been allocated to waiting recipients, Nicole and her colleagues step in when it’s time for organ recovery. They take biopsies, prepare organs for transportation, and support technologies – like liver perfusion pumps – that improve outcomes and maximize the gift.
It’s highly specialized work that requires precision, adaptability, and close collaboration with other members of the donation and transplant teams. For Nicole, many of the qualities essential to the role are the same ones she developed during her military service.
“I expect integrity,” she said. “Integrity in yourself and in your work. That’s huge.”
Teamwork and communication are equally important. “You rely on your teammates to step in when you need help, because it’s not just one person. It takes everybody,” Nicole explained. “You have to be adaptable. You have to be able to communicate, communicate, communicate.”
But technical expertise and teamwork are only part of what makes someone successful in organ recovery. Nicole believes humility and compassion are just as essential.
Even after nearly twenty years in the field, she reminds herself and the people she trains never to become complacent.
“You’ve got to come into the OR humble,” she said. “Just because you’ve been doing this twenty years, that doesn’t mean you can’t make a mistake.”
She also makes a conscious effort to remember the person behind every donation.
“I always think about the family,” Nicole said. “I try to understand the donor’s story a little bit and think that just a few days ago, they were living their life.” That perspective helps her approach each recovery with the care and respect it deserves, recognizing the profound loss a donor family is experiencing, and the hope their decision may provide to others.
Remembering the People Behind the Mission
Nicole has witnessed both the extraordinary potential of organ donation and the heartbreak of cases that don’t result in transplantation. Sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts, donation cannot proceed. She thinks about the families who hoped something positive might come from an unimaginable loss.
“They tried, and I think that’s valuable, too,” she said. “I think there’s some peace in knowing that your loved one lived on.” For Nicole, remembering the human side of organ donation is essential to finding meaning in work that can be emotionally demanding.
She also emphasizes the importance of caring for the people who carry out the mission. Taking time away from work, staying active, and talking with colleagues who understand the emotional challenges of organ recovery are among the ways she protects her own well-being.
“If you don’t do that, it can become just a job, without any real thought,” she said.
Over the years, Nicole has also watched organ recovery evolve with new technologies and processes. Keeping pace with those advancements is something she takes pride in, particularly knowing how important they are to the work. And while much of Nicole’s work happens behind the scenes, she occasionally encounters people whose lives have been touched by organ donation in unexpected places.
During a recent trip to Florida, Nicole was wearing a T-shirt advocating for organ donation when a man approached her in the hotel breakfast area. “He said, ‘I donated my kidney to my daughter about 25 years ago,’” Nicole recalled. “He saw my T-shirt and thought it was really cool.”
The chance encounter sparked a conversation and reminded Nicole how many people have a personal connection to donation, even when she least expects it. “It’s amazing the conversations you strike up when you’ve got a T-shirt or a necklace or a hat on that says something about organ donation,” she said. “It’s everywhere you go.”
For someone who spends so much time focused on the clinical side of organ recovery, those conversations offer a meaningful glimpse of the lives and families impacted by the work she does every day.
Honoring Those Who Serve
When Nicole reflects on Veterans Day, her thoughts turn first to those who have made tremendous sacrifices through their military service. She is humble about her own experience and quick to recognize veterans who have lost their lives, sustained life-changing injuries, or continue to live with the psychological effects of their service.
“That’s who Veterans Day really belongs to, in my eyes,” she said. “The folks who really sacrificed. That’s who I think of.”
Although Nicole doesn’t consider her own service more important than anyone else’s contributions, she remains grateful for the decision she made at 17.
“It was a choice to serve my country, and I’d never take it back,” she said.
That commitment to service continues today through her work at Mid-America Transplant, where she has spent nearly two decades honoring donors, supporting families, and making lifesaving transplants possible.
For those considering a similar career, Nicole is candid about the emotional demands of the work, but equally enthusiastic about the support employees receive and the fulfillment that comes from contributing to the mission.
“It’s very rewarding work if you let it be,” she said. “If you really think about what you’re doing and how you’re helping, it is very rewarding.”
This Veterans Day, Mid-America Transplant is proud to recognize Nicole and all veterans whose dedication, experiences, and commitment to serving others continue to make a difference in their communities.
Interested in a career that makes a difference? Explore opportunities to join the team at Mid-America Transplant and help support the lifesaving mission of organ, eye, and tissue donation.
