February 6, 2025 • 33 mins
Join us as we welcome the extraordinary Mike Lollo, a former NYPD detective whose journey led him to become a passionate advocate for kidney donation. Mike's life took an inspiring turn in 2018 when he donated his kidney to a stranger. He shares his remarkable story with us, reflecting on how chance encounters with people like Ned Brooks shaped his mission to transform lives through the power of living donation. This episode highlights Mike's dedication and the profound impact his advocacy has had on individuals like Tommy Alexander and Mark Weiner.
We also explore Mike's career transition from the beat of New York City streets to the intricate logistics of organ transport. His role as chief strategy officer at the National Kidney Registry and his current position with Mobile Network 24 underscore his commitment to the safe and efficient transport of organs. Mike provides an insider's perspective on the complex layers of planning and coordination required to ensure successful transplants, especially when time is of the essence. His insights shed light on the critical importance of reliable transport systems in saving lives.
Mike Lollo is also the host of a new podcast called “Let’s Talk Transplant!” Mike was formerly co-host of the podcast “One is Enough,” an NKR podcast. You can find both podcast wherever you listen to podcasts!
Links:
Mobile Network 24
Let’s Talk Transplant Website
Let’s Talk Transplant on Facebook
One is Enough Podcast
Donor Diaries Website
Donor Diaries on Facebook
Connect with Laurie Lee
GiftWorks
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Donor Diaries, a podcast that explores
how people are changing livesthrough the powerful act of
living donation.
Tune in to discover howkindness, love and simple acts
of giving are transforming livesevery day.
Hello and welcome back to DonorDiaries.
(00:23):
Every day, organs are gettingflown and driven across the
country to those in need of atransplant.
Today, my guest is my friend,Mike Lalo, who's going to share
(00:43):
a bit about the part he plays ingetting those organs where they
need to go.
He works at Mobile Network 24,but has a colorful history in
the kidney world, and prettymuch just a colorful history in
general.
Welcome to Donor Diaries, Mike.
Happy to have you as a guest.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
finally, I am so excited because you're not just
a donor friend and a closepersonal friend, but you are my
inspiration.
I know we're going to talkabout it later for me to start a
podcast, so I'm super excitedthat you invited me on Well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
it's been a long time coming and I can't wait to ask
some questions about yourpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I am an open book, total transparency.
So, lori Lee, go ahead and askme whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
How did you become a kidney guy, Mike?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
That is a great question and you know, every
good kidney guy has a kidney guy.
So I will give a plug to myoriginal mentor, my OG kidney
guy Ned Brooks, who started asmall little organization years
ago called Donor to Donor, andthen myself and a few other
(01:49):
people helped him turn it intothe National Kidney Donation
Organization, which is thelargest living kidney advocacy
group, I would say, in theUnited States.
So he was my first kidney guyand I kind of, you know, modeled
myself, I guess you know, afterhim, but I guess I became a
kidney guy because I donated mykidney.
I guess that's how you, that'sone of the requirements, right,
Lori?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yep, it is.
You got one kidney.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I got one kidney, so donated my kidney back in 2018.
And I'm just she had a very,very short story, so I don't
bore your listeners.
I was New York City police,nypd detective at the time and
I'm sitting at my desk and I waslooking at the computer screen
and we have this thing called anintranet, which is like an
internal police intranet thing,and a flyer came up about a
(02:34):
police officer named TommyAlexander who was in need of a
kidney.
So I called the phone numberthat was there, the transplant
center just never called me back, so I just assumed that you
know Tommy got his kidney.
So that was in April.
At that time, and until I sawTommy's you know flyer, I never
thought about kidney donation.
I really didn't know it was athing that you could do and I
(02:55):
just totally put it out of mymind.
And then, four months later, Isaw an article in the New York
Post about a guy that had abillboard donated to him at
Times Square.
His name is Mark Weiner andthey again were asking for you
know someone to come forward anddonate a kidney.
So everyone asks and Lori Lee,I'm sure you've been asked this
question a million times whywould you donate your kidney to
(03:17):
a stranger.
What was going through yourmind?
For me, the best way to answerit is I was 46.
I never heard of kidneydonation.
I tried to do it in April andthen I didn't hear a voice from
up above or anything.
But I did think it was very oddthat in a span of four months,
kidney donation came across myeyesight.
(03:40):
So I got tested to donate toMark and then I started doing
research and I found out thatyou could give your kidney to a
stranger.
So when I got the phone callfrom the hospital that I wasn't
a match for Mark, I asked thelady on the phone.
I said oh well, what about thisnon-directed thing Like I can
donate it to a stranger right?
And her response was yes,that's a different pile, I'll
(04:03):
have someone call you right.
Back was yes, that's adifferent pile, I'll have
someone call you right back.
And then I donated in Decemberof 2018 at Weill Cornell.
But I actively helped both ofthem find kidney donors and each
of them ended up getting avoucher through the National
Kidney Registry and they bothgot kidneys and Tommy Alexander
is still a police officer in theNew York City Police Department
on a harbor boat, and MarkWeiner is no longer on his, you
(04:27):
know, seven, eight years ofdialysis, and he has a kidney
now too.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So that is an awesome non-directed donation story,
mike, and I love how your kidneywent to a third person and not
the two people on your radar inneed, but that you also played a
role in getting both of thosepeople kidneys anyway.
It's just really cool andunique.
Can you share a little bitabout your career journey in
Mobile Network 24?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, you were there, I think from almost all of it.
So you know, I was a NYPDdetective, like I said, and I
retired in August of 2020.
And I did what every lawenforcement officer does when
they retire.
I got a security gig.
I was a director of securityfor a school district out here
on Long Island and I had a greattime.
I was volunteering for theNational Kidney Donation
(05:13):
Organization at the time,mentoring people, helping people
find kidney donors.
It was totally cool, everythingwas great.
And about a year into that, Iget a phone call from my kidney
guy, ned Brooks, and he sayslisten, we want to expand the
National Kidney DonationOrganization and we're looking
for a face and a voice and Ilike to talk.
I know people can't see my face, but it is very handsome.
(05:34):
I do like to talk.
And he goes we have anopportunity to hire someone.
As the president I said get outof here, I'm like what do I got
to do?
the president, I said get out ofhere.
I'm like, what do I got to do?
He goes, we'll figure it out.
But you know, basically we wantto you know, promote awareness.
I'm like I'm in.
So I worked only for one year atthe school district and I went
to work as the president of theNational Kidney Donation
Organization and I did that fora year and the National Kidney
(05:55):
Donation Organization, nkdo,works very closely with the
National Kidney Registry, nkr,and after the first year the CEO
, garrett Hill, approached Nedand I and asked if I would come
work over there as their chiefstrategy officer and I took the
job 2021, I guess, I went towork as the chief strategy
(06:15):
officer of the National SecurityRegistry.
I did that for two years andthen in April of last year I
stopped working there.
Everything's okay, I still talkto the people at NKR and
everything's fine.
And I took the summer off andthen I got a phone call out of
the blue from a buddy of minethat said listen, there's this
friend of mine who has thiscompany and I think he could
(06:36):
really use a you and heconnected me with Brian Smith,
who's the CEO and founder ofMobile Network 24.
And they are an organ transportcompany, so they transport
either recovery teams or organsback and forth and I wanted to
stay in organ transplant somehow.
And here I am still in organtransplant.
I was hoping and praying that Icould do something in
(06:58):
transplant and it materialized.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
That's amazing.
And I love that last switch foryou when you moved over to
Mobile Network 24, because, yes,it is organ donation, but it's
very different than what you'dbeen doing.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean there's overlap, but I mean you and I
know, not as much as I wouldhave liked.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah right, Exactly.
And you're working with a lotof deceased donor organs.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Correct.
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So before we hop into what Mobile Network 24 does,
let's just talk a little bitabout the landscape of moving
organs, because I think there'sa lot to understand behind that,
and people who are new to thisoften think their kidney is
going to get lost in the mail.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Mike, can you explain the gap between organ
availability and location andthose who are in need of a
life-saving transplant?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Sure, so I'm going to , I'll break it up into living,
which is what I specialized in,I guess, before, just really
quick, and then we'll spend alittle more time on the disease
side.
So there's a company calledright National Kidney Registry I
mentioned.
There's another company calledAlliance for Paired Kidney
Donation and they movespecifically kidneys living
donor kidneys from point A topoint B completely safe.
(08:12):
Those kidneys are typicallymoved either by vehicle, which
is the preferred method becauseit's a lot easier to control
right when the car's on theground, versus, you know, a
plane flight.
They are also shipped frompoint A to point B on commercial
flights.
So the kidney doesn't get aseat on a plane per se but it
gets allocated to be on a planeand it gets dropped off at the
(08:33):
airport and then it gets pickedup at the airport and brought to
the transplant center.
In those two areas for livingkidney donation there's never
been an issue, a problem, akidney that has not gotten
transplanted because of atransportation issues, kudos.
On the living kidney donor sideit's not.
It's not as great on thedeceased donor side and I think
there's a lot of variables withthat and you know I'm not an
(08:57):
expert per se.
People can go back and they canlook at the last couple of
senate hearings where theyspecifically talk about organs
that are lost in transit.
I can only talk about thecompany that I work for now.
We have never misplaced, lostan organ of any kind.
It always gets to where it'sgot to go.
But there isn't one unifiedsystem.
(09:19):
So there are many companieslike ours.
So there are many companieslike ours the OPOs, the organ
procurement organizations cancontract with any courier
service.
If you will that they want, thetransplant centers can contract
with a courier service.
So there isn't one singularmethod.
There's not one unified process.
(09:39):
When I worked at the NKR, theirprotocol is to have a primary
commercial flight, a backupcommercial flight and then to
get a price on a charteredflight just in case those first
two fail.
So you know the importance ofhaving a redundancy in organ
transport is really veryimportant, but there's even a
(09:59):
backup patient, so it's soimportant to make sure that that
kidney finds a home.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well, I love logistics.
I don't know if you know thatabout me.
Our conversation's reminding meof an interview I did with Al
Ross last season.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I've heard of that guy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You have Great guy, and one of the things he talked
about was the early days ofkidney exchange and how
difficult it was, for example,to get transplant centers to
coordinate, because one centerdoes living donation surgeries
on Tuesdays and the other onedoes on Thursdays, right.
So they have to come to somesort of agreement where the
(10:36):
logistics fall in line such thatthey can take a living donor
kidney out of somebody in NewYork in the morning and that
when it arrives in San Franciscothat team's going to be ready
to receive it.
You know whether or not they dokidney surgeries on Tuesdays
normally or not.
So I mean the time sensitivityof this.
(10:58):
Let's talk about the timesensitivity of organs and
transporting them.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah.
So I guess I'll focus now ondeceased organ donation and I
will give a high level, if youwill, of the process and that
will probably segue right intothe logistics component, just so
people have an understanding.
So I'm not sure if people areaware we just had a milestone
last year.
(11:22):
They transplanted over 48,000total organs in the United
States and that's the highestthat it's ever been.
As most of the listenersprobably know, there's more than
100,000 people on the list.
So we never have enough organs,whether it's deceased or living
, to satisfy these poor peoplethat are on the list.
So 1% or less of the people passin a manner that the majority
(11:45):
of their organs can be used.
Like my mother-in-law who hadthe cardiac event, she passed
technically at home and by thetime they get her to the
hospital, the heart, the lungsand all that kind of stuff the
kidneys, the liver they're notviable.
So she was able to donate theskin.
But for someone to donate thelungs and the kidneys and the
heart, pretty much you'reprobably already in the hospital
(12:08):
and it's someone who probably Idon't even know if it's a
medical term, but people wouldunderstand that you're in
essence brain dead.
And then there's a wholecoordination happens and I was
just at a conference and, loriLee, your mind is going to be
blown Just on that end.
There's, they said, about 200people of you know between the
organ procurement organizations,the hospital family.
(12:29):
There's like 200 people whotouch this particular decision.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So 200 people are involved with a kidney getting
from point A to point B.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Or a heart or a lung, yeah, and the disease side it's
.
It's because there's likethere's the finance people,
there's people on the back.
It's like this amazing, crazylogistical machine.
There's all these things goingon kind of at the same time and
very quickly.
So, unlike living kidneydonation, it's a 24-7 operation.
(12:59):
So our drivers have to havetheir phones on, the pilots have
to be ready to go, because youcan get a call literally any
minute of day, two o'clock inthe morning, right, you can't
predict when someone's going topass and when the opportunity
strikes.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That's incredible.
I can't tell you how often I'mdriving to work and I'm
following an organ into the city.
It's typically in a Gift ofHope van with the lights on.
It's cool, right, it's reallycool.
It's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
But think about this, all the team that led up to
that point.
You have these skilled surgeonswho recovered the organ, all
the team and the skilledsurgeons who are going to be
putting that organ in right, andyou're in the middle.
As a transport company.
You're in the middle and ifsurgeons are listening, don't be
(13:48):
offended by this, but we havean equal responsibility and a
role in a transplant because,obviously, the surgeon went to
school a heck of a lot longerthan I did and the other people
that we have at our company.
The transport of the organ isessential.
I think all the parts of thismachine, of this cog, have an
(14:09):
equal responsibility, althoughyou know, the surgeons went to
school for, you know,double-digit years and all I did
was donate my kidney and Ifound myself here.
But it's fascinating Really.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I do like logistics as well and I find this whole
thing very, very fascinating Metoo, all of the technology
that's coming out now to makethe shelf life longer, so that,
like liver perfusion devicesthat are allowing transplant
centers to hold that organ onice being perfused overnight yes
, that their team can come in inthe morning, versus turning an
(14:41):
organ away in the middle of thenight because they don't have
the ability to transplant it atthat time.
A hundred percent.
So special shout out to thetransplant coordinators, organ
procurement organizations andspecialized transport teams that
make up these 200 people thatmove, oh my gosh, loyally.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
since I've been here, we've got video of the family
having to see the car arriving,with their loved one's heart
right and the joy, and then thedrivers actually got to take
pictures with you know, the thepeople, and then they, like,
they stayed in the waiting roomfor a little while like holy
(15:19):
mackerel, right, I'm really sohappy to do this and, just like
you know, you are witheverything that you've been
doing.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
it's, it's definitely a passion so how does mobile
network 24 play a role in movingorgans to where they need to be
, because they're one of these200 people or organizations.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's a great question and I think I'll answer
it.
Stop answering.
It is what drew me to MobileNetwork 24.
When I spoke to my CEO, brianand his wife also works for the
organization Karen, she's aregistered nurse by trade
there's such like a passion withthem and the other companies
that are out there.
I have met them, especially atthat last conference, and they
(15:57):
all have passion.
But I think there's somethingdifferent about Mobile Network
24 and it was attractive to me.
They're very grounded people,very humble people.
My boss had a business, anational black car service
business, for 30 years and thenCOVID happened and he pivoted.
But he ended up.
(16:18):
He's like oh you know, whatelse can I do in logistics?
And he opened up, started anambulance company and we are
licensed in 25 states to dolicensed sirens.
And then someone turned him onto organ transport and they said
you know, you should reallyfocus on this.
And so that's all we do isorgan transport.
But when I spoke to him and hiswife, there's such a passion
(16:39):
it's almost like you know thatyou're having such a profound
impact that they want to do more, they want to have more
successful transports.
So you so our slogan, which Icannot take credit for creating.
I will take credit fortrademarking it because it is
trademarked.
Anyone who hears this.
(17:00):
You cannot use it or steal itbecause I will come after you.
But Karen came up with this.
It's transporting secondchances, isn't that beautiful?
So I was very drawn to thiscompany and transplant is very
slow to change in my experiencethat I've had from the day I
donated till now.
(17:20):
So the company I'm working forhas a very fresh look at it.
And just so people understand,I've talked a couple of times
about charters.
Right, you got to fly the teamfrom point A to point B.
You got to fly the heart frompoint A to point B.
Those can't go on commercialairlines because we just don't
have that kind of time.
Right, it needs to get therereally quick.
(17:42):
So how does it go?
You have to hire a private jetfrom a charter company.
That is very, very expensive.
And what I've learned fromSeptember till today if I talk
to someone what's your biggestconcern about organ transport,
and they all say the plane.
You know there's people who'vegotten bills for like $100,000.
(18:03):
The way it works is that priceis pretty much 100% passed
through to all of us who arelistening, because it gets to be
put on the Medicare cost report.
So the way the not MobileNetwork 24, but the way the
system currently works now isthere are other companies that
do what we do.
They operate as a charter typeservice and also have charter
(18:27):
companies who are affiliatedwith them charter type service
and also have charter companieswho are affiliated with them.
And they get the call andthey'll call the charter company
and say I need to go fromTeterboro to Tampa, right, and
the charter company tax on apercentage a broker fee is what
it's called and then if thatcompany can't find the plane,
they go to another chartercompany.
It's broker stacking isactually the term.
(18:50):
So the reason why it's $100,000is because there's all these
additional fees.
But it has to be done becauseit's a life that gets saved.
So anyway, the point is my bosscame up with this concept and I
don't want to bore people, but acharter company operates under
a specific way.
Under the FAA regulations it'scalled a Part 135.
(19:10):
And that's how these charterplanes go from Vegas and this,
that and the other thing.
It's very costly to operate asa Part 135.
So they do have to charge thesehigher rates because they're
paying a lot more for that FAAdesignation, private people or
corporate travel departmentslike American Express.
American Express has a coupleof their own planes, bloomberg
has his own planes, goldmanSachs has a plane or two.
(19:32):
Right, they operate under aPart 91.
And that's a lot less expensiveto operate.
So my boss said well, whycouldn't we sort of have a
corporate travel department, orwe like to call it an internal
travel department for transplant?
So the way it works is the waythat we operate is we have our
own planes, we have three, we'repurchasing a fourth.
(19:55):
We have all our own vehicles,all our own employees, our own
pilots that are paid salariesand get a 401k and all that kind
of stuff that are on call andwe legally are allowed to
operate as this Part 91 foranyone that we contract with.
So if you're one of ourpartners, we're almost like a
(20:15):
subsidiary of that company.
So we assume all the risk forbuying or leasing the plane, the
fuel, the maintenance, thepilots.
But you know, we have theseplanes sitting there basically
waiting for our partners to callus.
So a benefit of that is and I'veheard this consistently it's
called a call out.
Right, oh, I'm going to need aplane.
You usually got to give acharter company like two hours.
(20:37):
They got a call the plane maybe someplace else.
It's called repositioning.
You got to reposition yourplane.
Our planes are all in onelocation right now and we can be
up in the air in under 60minutes typically 45, but we
tell people 60 minutes, which isamazing.
Right, that cuts a whole hourplus.
You know that we can getsomeplace and get that organ
transported somewhere quicker.
(20:57):
And the other thing that we'redoing is because we don't have
the high costs of operatingunder this way charters do, is
we offer fixed pricing.
I don't know of any othercompany in the industry that
offers fixed pricing.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So it clearly costs less than $100,000.
What's your pricing like incomparison to what transplant
centers currently pay on average?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Well, it depends on the zone.
I'll just give you an exampleIf you stay within zone one,
it's like 16,000 and change,right, that's like 250 nautical
miles or something like that.
So that price will never change.
If you're anywhere, anytime youtravel within zone one, that's
(21:43):
the price.
So these hospitals, OPOs, theseother companies that use
private charters, they usuallyhave to call and say listen, I'm
going from Teterboro to Tampa,what's the price?
We tell our people you don'thave to call me.
I'm giving you the map of theUnited States, I'm giving you
the zone map and here's theprice list, if you will right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So it's the FedEx model.
So I use FedEx daily and Ialways the cost based on what
zone I'm shipping to and thefirst one variable is the weight
of the package.
It sounds just like the FedExmodel concept is.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
This is where I talk about transplant.
The concept is not new to theworld, right, but it's not been
used, has not been used intransplant, and why, I don't
know.
I think people just think thatthe current method is the only
method.
The other people that areoperating in this space are a
bit larger than we are, andiresyour company, do you replace
their existing transport?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
system, or are they using you in addition to
whatever transport system orsystems they're already using?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That's a great question.
So we have no exclusivityclauses.
I would strongly encourage acompany to not put all their
eggs in one basket.
You know the National KidneyRegistry, just as an example,
has two courier companies thattransport the kidneys from point
A to point B.
But there are companies that dokind of like lock people in.
You know that doesn't benefitthe people who need the organ.
(23:32):
So the answer, as far as ourcompany goes, you know Mobile
Network 24,.
No, we work with one of ourpartners now that uses another
air company and that's totallycool.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Now.
So they're looking at itsituationally and there might be
cases where they use adifferent one because it makes
more sense for whatever reason.
Sure absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Three of the four people that we partner with use
us exclusively, but that's theirchoice.
My goal would be that peoplewould at least give a second
look at how they transportorgans and the companies that
they use to think about.
You know Mobile Network 24'sinternal travel department and
all the benefits that it couldhave you know, financial and
(24:13):
otherwise to your organization.
There's all this stuff thathappens in transplant that I see
on a regular basis, and it'sall because there are people who
are not open minded and I thinkthat they're a little reluctant
to change.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So well for anyone listening who's interested in
cost savings and change.
I will make sure to put yourinformation in my show notes so
that they can contact youdirectly.
But, mike, I know another thingyou really want to talk about
today is your podcast.
So there's only a handful ofpodcasts that focus on organ
(24:45):
donation out there.
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Is that true?
I didn't look, because I onlyknow of one other one, yours.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It's an uncommon and cool thing that we have in
common, but you've had morepodcasts than me, so you have a
one up there, so let's startwith the first one.
Tell us about your podcast.
One is Enough.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Sure, so One is Enough was the podcast that I
was a co-host on when I workedat the National Kidney Registry.
Someone said, you know, oh,maybe we should do a podcast.
I'm like, oh, that's kind ofinteresting.
So we ended up doing twoseasons and I really liked it
and you know, I got validation,sort of like when I was telling
my kidney story for the onemillionth time.
(25:24):
People were like, why do you doit?
Because throughout the last sixyears people have told me that
they have looked into donatingand donated because of the
article that I was in or theradio station or the news
broadcast, so which gives mevalidation to never stop.
It was great, I love doing it.
I think we had some greatcontent, some really great
(25:46):
episodes.
Honest Enough is still outthere if people want to listen
to it.
I mean I prefer you listen toDonor Diaries or the new podcast
, the newest, the rookie podcastcalled let's Talk Transplant,
which is now, I guess we'll sayindependently, mine, right, my
two anonymous donors who werewilling to fund, you know, the
(26:10):
startup of this podcast and youknow I have enough money to
produce six episodes.
So I think you, laurie Lee,said how hard it is to do the
editing and all of this stuff.
So I have a very small team butyou know, very small like one
person who helps me with allthat stuff.
So I really just have to kindof like show up, talk for an
hour and then and then leave.
So I just started it.
(26:33):
Episode zero is out there.
Let's call let's TalkTransplant wherever you listen
to podcasts, and I have recordedmy first episode, which will be
coming out February 4th.
My first guest is Kevin Longino, the CEO of the National Kidney
Foundation.
I am interviewing an OPO CEOfrom Ohio so we can learn more
(26:54):
about the organ procurementworld and all that kind of stuff
.
And then I have my third guestcommitted.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, theArchbishop of New York, has
agreed to come on let's TalkTransplanting.
He's very charismatic.
When I was with the policedepartment I worked on his
protection detail with his otherdetective that he has.
But there's a large number ofpeople who think that organ
(27:18):
donation, whether living ordeceased, is against their
religion.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yes, unfortunately, that's a common myth.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
So I said to myself, who can I get to sort of dispel
this myth?
He's one vote away from beingthe pope.
I mean, he's a cardinal, right,and if something happens to the
pope he could be almost thehighest in the land, right?
So I said let me see if hewould do it.
And I reached out to his peopleand I couldn't believe it.
He said, yeah, the Cardinalsaid he would gladly do it and I
have to email his people tolock in a date.
So that's my first three.
Oh, I have.
(27:51):
Oh, actually, I have someoneelse coming up too.
You know Kelly Schmidt, right?
Yep, yeah.
So Kelly Schmidt has an amazingstory and living and she's also
part of a two-time, if you will, donor, donor family.
So you know the podcast.
I want it to be everything andanything you could think of.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Congrats on your new podcast, Mike.
It sounds like an incrediblelineup.
Really happy for you.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That's cool.
So far right.
It's all downhill from there.
One podcast was not enough.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So one actually wasn't enough, but that's okay,
because now we can listen tolet's talk transplant and get
our mic lalo fix again.
If you're missing, one isenough.
And for our listeners, checkout my show notes and I'll link
you to both of his podcasts.
I was a big fan of the firstone and I'm excited to hear
episode one of let's talktransplant, which launches
actually the same week as thisepisode you're listening to now.
(28:40):
Fan of the first one and I'mexcited to hear episode one of
let's Talk Transplant, whichlaunches actually the same week
as this episode you're listeningto now.
So lots of listening to Mikefor us all to look forward to
Mike.
In closing, what's the mostimportant thing you want our
audience to hear that youhaven't talked about today?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
The most important thing is for anyone out there
that still has two kidneys thatthey look into the possibility
of being a living kidney donor.
Today I don't know the exactnumber it's probably in the
neighborhood of 94,000 peoplewho are on the wait list, you
know, waiting for a kidney.
That doesn't account for the500,000, 600,000 people who are
(29:22):
on dialysis, so those people ondialysis can benefit also from a
kidney right.
So there's a lot of people outthere that need a kidney and we
just don't have enough resourcesthat we need to figure out ways
to increase.
You know organ donation now andyou know your podcast, my
podcast and the other you know10 or so podcasts that are out
(29:42):
there and any story about livingkidney donation, I think, is
truly important.
So if you're listening to this,I hope that Lori Lee and I
inspire you.
I think that's it, anythingelse.
Did I miss anything, lori?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
No, that was wonderful, Mike.
Thanks for a great interviewtoday.
Good luck with your podcast.
Huge congratulations.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Thank you.
You know we didn't get to talkabout that.
I was just gonna have to leavethis cliffhanger about you and I
have scuba diving in common,but maybe if I ever come on
again, we can talk more aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, we could have a scuba podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Thank you, Lori.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'd really like to show the world that Mike and
Lori can scuba dive in Bonaire.
We can scuba dive in Thailand.
Watch us go 100 feet in all ofthese different countries and if
you could just sponsor us, wecan prove to you that you can
scuba dive with one kidney.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That would be.
What would my wetsuit look like?
Would it be like like I'd haveto have like kidney stuff all
over it?
That would be awesome.
For full disclosure, I haven'tdove in a very long time but I
am, you know, an advancedcertified PADI diver.
That's impressive.
I know you're like a masterdiver, I think.
Right, Aren't you?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I'm a dive master.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
See, she's a dive master everybody.
So look for Lori Lee and MikeLalo's future podcasts.
We're going to have to come upwith a name like Diving for
Kidneys, or I don't know.
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right.
Thank you, mike, thanks Lori.
Special thanks to Mike for thisepisode, which was edited down
from a 90 minute conversation.
I also want to acknowledge twopeople who were edited out for
the sake of time Mike'srecipient, ruth, who ultimately
received Mike's non-directedkidney, and Mike's wife, megan,
who is truly amazing.
After Mike donated a kidney, afew years later, megan went
(31:23):
above and beyond, donating herliver to a co-worker.
The Lalo family is a family ofgivers and we should all be so
lucky to know people like Mikeand Megan.
Congrats, mike and Megan.
This season of Donor Diaries isproudly sponsored by GiftWorks,
(31:43):
an organization dedicated toempowering organ recipients and
living donors through education,advocacy and support.
By helping patients share theirjourneys and connect with
donors, giftworks ensureseveryone feels supported
throughout the transplantprocess.
We're honored to partner with ateam that's transforming lives,
one transplant at a time.
To learn more, visityourgiftworkscom.
Remember, every act of kindnesscreates ripples.
(32:06):
Thanks for listening and keepspreading those positive vibes.
This is Lori Lee signing off.
I just want to feel thesunshine.
I just want to feel thesunshine.
(32:30):
I share this life with you.
Welcome to Donor Diaries, a podcast that explores
how people are changing livesthrough the powerful act of
living donation.
Tune in to discover howkindness, love and simple acts
of giving are transforming livesevery day.
Hello and welcome back to DonorDiaries.
(00:23):
Every day, organs are gettingflown and driven across the
country to those in need of atransplant.
Today, my guest is my friend,Mike Lalo, who's going to share
(00:43):
a bit about the part he plays ingetting those organs where they
need to go.
He works at Mobile Network 24,but has a colorful history in
the kidney world, and prettymuch just a colorful history in
general.
Welcome to Donor Diaries, Mike.
Happy to have you as a guest.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
finally, I am so excited because you're not just
a donor friend and a closepersonal friend, but you are my
inspiration.
I know we're going to talkabout it later for me to start a
podcast, so I'm super excitedthat you invited me on Well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
it's been a long time coming and I can't wait to ask
some questions about yourpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I am an open book, total transparency.
So, lori Lee, go ahead and askme whatever you want.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
How did you become a kidney guy, Mike?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
That is a great question and you know, every
good kidney guy has a kidney guy.
So I will give a plug to myoriginal mentor, my OG kidney
guy Ned Brooks, who started asmall little organization years
ago called Donor to Donor, andthen myself and a few other
(01:49):
people helped him turn it intothe National Kidney Donation
Organization, which is thelargest living kidney advocacy
group, I would say, in theUnited States.
So he was my first kidney guyand I kind of, you know, modeled
myself, I guess you know, afterhim, but I guess I became a
kidney guy because I donated mykidney.
I guess that's how you, that'sone of the requirements, right,
Lori?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yep, it is.
You got one kidney.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
I got one kidney, so donated my kidney back in 2018.
And I'm just she had a very,very short story, so I don't
bore your listeners.
I was New York City police,nypd detective at the time and
I'm sitting at my desk and I waslooking at the computer screen
and we have this thing called anintranet, which is like an
internal police intranet thing,and a flyer came up about a
(02:34):
police officer named TommyAlexander who was in need of a
kidney.
So I called the phone numberthat was there, the transplant
center just never called me back, so I just assumed that you
know Tommy got his kidney.
So that was in April.
At that time, and until I sawTommy's you know flyer, I never
thought about kidney donation.
I really didn't know it was athing that you could do and I
(02:55):
just totally put it out of mymind.
And then, four months later, Isaw an article in the New York
Post about a guy that had abillboard donated to him at
Times Square.
His name is Mark Weiner andthey again were asking for you
know someone to come forward anddonate a kidney.
So everyone asks and Lori Lee,I'm sure you've been asked this
question a million times whywould you donate your kidney to
(03:17):
a stranger.
What was going through yourmind?
For me, the best way to answerit is I was 46.
I never heard of kidneydonation.
I tried to do it in April andthen I didn't hear a voice from
up above or anything.
But I did think it was very oddthat in a span of four months,
kidney donation came across myeyesight.
(03:40):
So I got tested to donate toMark and then I started doing
research and I found out thatyou could give your kidney to a
stranger.
So when I got the phone callfrom the hospital that I wasn't
a match for Mark, I asked thelady on the phone.
I said oh well, what about thisnon-directed thing Like I can
donate it to a stranger right?
And her response was yes,that's a different pile, I'll
(04:03):
have someone call you right.
Back was yes, that's adifferent pile, I'll have
someone call you right back.
And then I donated in Decemberof 2018 at Weill Cornell.
But I actively helped both ofthem find kidney donors and each
of them ended up getting avoucher through the National
Kidney Registry and they bothgot kidneys and Tommy Alexander
is still a police officer in theNew York City Police Department
on a harbor boat, and MarkWeiner is no longer on his, you
(04:27):
know, seven, eight years ofdialysis, and he has a kidney
now too.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So that is an awesome non-directed donation story,
mike, and I love how your kidneywent to a third person and not
the two people on your radar inneed, but that you also played a
role in getting both of thosepeople kidneys anyway.
It's just really cool andunique.
Can you share a little bitabout your career journey in
Mobile Network 24?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, you were there, I think from almost all of it.
So you know, I was a NYPDdetective, like I said, and I
retired in August of 2020.
And I did what every lawenforcement officer does when
they retire.
I got a security gig.
I was a director of securityfor a school district out here
on Long Island and I had a greattime.
I was volunteering for theNational Kidney Donation
(05:13):
Organization at the time,mentoring people, helping people
find kidney donors.
It was totally cool, everythingwas great.
And about a year into that, Iget a phone call from my kidney
guy, ned Brooks, and he sayslisten, we want to expand the
National Kidney DonationOrganization and we're looking
for a face and a voice and Ilike to talk.
I know people can't see my face, but it is very handsome.
(05:34):
I do like to talk.
And he goes we have anopportunity to hire someone.
As the president I said get outof here, I'm like what do I got
to do?
the president, I said get out ofhere.
I'm like, what do I got to do?
He goes, we'll figure it out.
But you know, basically we wantto you know, promote awareness.
I'm like I'm in.
So I worked only for one year atthe school district and I went
to work as the president of theNational Kidney Donation
Organization and I did that fora year and the National Kidney
(05:55):
Donation Organization, nkdo,works very closely with the
National Kidney Registry, nkr,and after the first year the CEO
, garrett Hill, approached Nedand I and asked if I would come
work over there as their chiefstrategy officer and I took the
job 2021, I guess, I went towork as the chief strategy
(06:15):
officer of the National SecurityRegistry.
I did that for two years andthen in April of last year I
stopped working there.
Everything's okay, I still talkto the people at NKR and
everything's fine.
And I took the summer off andthen I got a phone call out of
the blue from a buddy of minethat said listen, there's this
friend of mine who has thiscompany and I think he could
(06:36):
really use a you and heconnected me with Brian Smith,
who's the CEO and founder ofMobile Network 24.
And they are an organ transportcompany, so they transport
either recovery teams or organsback and forth and I wanted to
stay in organ transplant somehow.
And here I am still in organtransplant.
I was hoping and praying that Icould do something in
(06:58):
transplant and it materialized.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
That's amazing.
And I love that last switch foryou when you moved over to
Mobile Network 24, because, yes,it is organ donation, but it's
very different than what you'dbeen doing.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
I mean there's overlap, but I mean you and I
know, not as much as I wouldhave liked.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah right, Exactly.
And you're working with a lotof deceased donor organs.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Correct.
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So before we hop into what Mobile Network 24 does,
let's just talk a little bitabout the landscape of moving
organs, because I think there'sa lot to understand behind that,
and people who are new to thisoften think their kidney is
going to get lost in the mail.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Mike, can you explain the gap between organ
availability and location andthose who are in need of a
life-saving transplant?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Sure, so I'm going to , I'll break it up into living,
which is what I specialized in,I guess, before, just really
quick, and then we'll spend alittle more time on the disease
side.
So there's a company calledright National Kidney Registry I
mentioned.
There's another company calledAlliance for Paired Kidney
Donation and they movespecifically kidneys living
donor kidneys from point A topoint B completely safe.
(08:12):
Those kidneys are typicallymoved either by vehicle, which
is the preferred method becauseit's a lot easier to control
right when the car's on theground, versus, you know, a
plane flight.
They are also shipped frompoint A to point B on commercial
flights.
So the kidney doesn't get aseat on a plane per se but it
gets allocated to be on a planeand it gets dropped off at the
(08:33):
airport and then it gets pickedup at the airport and brought to
the transplant center.
In those two areas for livingkidney donation there's never
been an issue, a problem, akidney that has not gotten
transplanted because of atransportation issues, kudos.
On the living kidney donor sideit's not.
It's not as great on thedeceased donor side and I think
there's a lot of variables withthat and you know I'm not an
(08:57):
expert per se.
People can go back and they canlook at the last couple of
senate hearings where theyspecifically talk about organs
that are lost in transit.
I can only talk about thecompany that I work for now.
We have never misplaced, lostan organ of any kind.
It always gets to where it'sgot to go.
But there isn't one unifiedsystem.
(09:19):
So there are many companieslike ours.
So there are many companieslike ours the OPOs, the organ
procurement organizations cancontract with any courier
service.
If you will that they want, thetransplant centers can contract
with a courier service.
So there isn't one singularmethod.
There's not one unified process.
(09:39):
When I worked at the NKR, theirprotocol is to have a primary
commercial flight, a backupcommercial flight and then to
get a price on a charteredflight just in case those first
two fail.
So you know the importance ofhaving a redundancy in organ
transport is really veryimportant, but there's even a
(09:59):
backup patient, so it's soimportant to make sure that that
kidney finds a home.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Well, I love logistics.
I don't know if you know thatabout me.
Our conversation's reminding meof an interview I did with Al
Ross last season.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I've heard of that guy.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
You have Great guy, and one of the things he talked
about was the early days ofkidney exchange and how
difficult it was, for example,to get transplant centers to
coordinate, because one centerdoes living donation surgeries
on Tuesdays and the other onedoes on Thursdays, right.
So they have to come to somesort of agreement where the
(10:36):
logistics fall in line such thatthey can take a living donor
kidney out of somebody in NewYork in the morning and that
when it arrives in San Franciscothat team's going to be ready
to receive it.
You know whether or not they dokidney surgeries on Tuesdays
normally or not.
So I mean the time sensitivityof this.
(10:58):
Let's talk about the timesensitivity of organs and
transporting them.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah.
So I guess I'll focus now ondeceased organ donation and I
will give a high level, if youwill, of the process and that
will probably segue right intothe logistics component, just so
people have an understanding.
So I'm not sure if people areaware we just had a milestone
last year.
(11:22):
They transplanted over 48,000total organs in the United
States and that's the highestthat it's ever been.
As most of the listenersprobably know, there's more than
100,000 people on the list.
So we never have enough organs,whether it's deceased or living
, to satisfy these poor peoplethat are on the list.
So 1% or less of the people passin a manner that the majority
(11:45):
of their organs can be used.
Like my mother-in-law who hadthe cardiac event, she passed
technically at home and by thetime they get her to the
hospital, the heart, the lungsand all that kind of stuff the
kidneys, the liver they're notviable.
So she was able to donate theskin.
But for someone to donate thelungs and the kidneys and the
heart, pretty much you'reprobably already in the hospital
(12:08):
and it's someone who probably Idon't even know if it's a
medical term, but people wouldunderstand that you're in
essence brain dead.
And then there's a wholecoordination happens and I was
just at a conference and, loriLee, your mind is going to be
blown Just on that end.
There's, they said, about 200people of you know between the
organ procurement organizations,the hospital family.
(12:29):
There's like 200 people whotouch this particular decision.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So 200 people are involved with a kidney getting
from point A to point B.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Or a heart or a lung, yeah, and the disease side it's
.
It's because there's likethere's the finance people,
there's people on the back.
It's like this amazing, crazylogistical machine.
There's all these things goingon kind of at the same time and
very quickly.
So, unlike living kidneydonation, it's a 24-7 operation.
(12:59):
So our drivers have to havetheir phones on, the pilots have
to be ready to go, because youcan get a call literally any
minute of day, two o'clock inthe morning, right, you can't
predict when someone's going topass and when the opportunity
strikes.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That's incredible.
I can't tell you how often I'mdriving to work and I'm
following an organ into the city.
It's typically in a Gift ofHope van with the lights on.
It's cool, right, it's reallycool.
It's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
But think about this, all the team that led up to
that point.
You have these skilled surgeonswho recovered the organ, all
the team and the skilledsurgeons who are going to be
putting that organ in right, andyou're in the middle.
As a transport company.
You're in the middle and ifsurgeons are listening, don't be
(13:48):
offended by this, but we havean equal responsibility and a
role in a transplant because,obviously, the surgeon went to
school a heck of a lot longerthan I did and the other people
that we have at our company.
The transport of the organ isessential.
I think all the parts of thismachine, of this cog, have an
(14:09):
equal responsibility, althoughyou know, the surgeons went to
school for, you know,double-digit years and all I did
was donate my kidney and Ifound myself here.
But it's fascinating Really.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I do like logistics as well and I find this whole
thing very, very fascinating Metoo, all of the technology
that's coming out now to makethe shelf life longer, so that,
like liver perfusion devicesthat are allowing transplant
centers to hold that organ onice being perfused overnight yes
, that their team can come in inthe morning, versus turning an
(14:41):
organ away in the middle of thenight because they don't have
the ability to transplant it atthat time.
A hundred percent.
So special shout out to thetransplant coordinators, organ
procurement organizations andspecialized transport teams that
make up these 200 people thatmove, oh my gosh, loyally.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
since I've been here, we've got video of the family
having to see the car arriving,with their loved one's heart
right and the joy, and then thedrivers actually got to take
pictures with you know, the thepeople, and then they, like,
they stayed in the waiting roomfor a little while like holy
(15:19):
mackerel, right, I'm really sohappy to do this and, just like
you know, you are witheverything that you've been
doing.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
it's, it's definitely a passion so how does mobile
network 24 play a role in movingorgans to where they need to be
, because they're one of these200 people or organizations.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
That's a great question and I think I'll answer
it.
Stop answering.
It is what drew me to MobileNetwork 24.
When I spoke to my CEO, brianand his wife also works for the
organization Karen, she's aregistered nurse by trade
there's such like a passion withthem and the other companies
that are out there.
I have met them, especially atthat last conference, and they
(15:57):
all have passion.
But I think there's somethingdifferent about Mobile Network
24 and it was attractive to me.
They're very grounded people,very humble people.
My boss had a business, anational black car service
business, for 30 years and thenCOVID happened and he pivoted.
But he ended up.
(16:18):
He's like oh you know, whatelse can I do in logistics?
And he opened up, started anambulance company and we are
licensed in 25 states to dolicensed sirens.
And then someone turned him onto organ transport and they said
you know, you should reallyfocus on this.
And so that's all we do isorgan transport.
But when I spoke to him and hiswife, there's such a passion
(16:39):
it's almost like you know thatyou're having such a profound
impact that they want to do more, they want to have more
successful transports.
So you so our slogan, which Icannot take credit for creating.
I will take credit fortrademarking it because it is
trademarked.
Anyone who hears this.
(17:00):
You cannot use it or steal itbecause I will come after you.
But Karen came up with this.
It's transporting secondchances, isn't that beautiful?
So I was very drawn to thiscompany and transplant is very
slow to change in my experiencethat I've had from the day I
donated till now.
(17:20):
So the company I'm working forhas a very fresh look at it.
And just so people understand,I've talked a couple of times
about charters.
Right, you got to fly the teamfrom point A to point B.
You got to fly the heart frompoint A to point B.
Those can't go on commercialairlines because we just don't
have that kind of time.
Right, it needs to get therereally quick.
(17:42):
So how does it go?
You have to hire a private jetfrom a charter company.
That is very, very expensive.
And what I've learned fromSeptember till today if I talk
to someone what's your biggestconcern about organ transport,
and they all say the plane.
You know there's people who'vegotten bills for like $100,000.
(18:03):
The way it works is that priceis pretty much 100% passed
through to all of us who arelistening, because it gets to be
put on the Medicare cost report.
So the way the not MobileNetwork 24, but the way the
system currently works now isthere are other companies that
do what we do.
They operate as a charter typeservice and also have charter
(18:27):
companies who are affiliatedwith them charter type service
and also have charter companieswho are affiliated with them.
And they get the call andthey'll call the charter company
and say I need to go fromTeterboro to Tampa, right, and
the charter company tax on apercentage a broker fee is what
it's called and then if thatcompany can't find the plane,
they go to another chartercompany.
It's broker stacking isactually the term.
(18:50):
So the reason why it's $100,000is because there's all these
additional fees.
But it has to be done becauseit's a life that gets saved.
So anyway, the point is my bosscame up with this concept and I
don't want to bore people, but acharter company operates under
a specific way.
Under the FAA regulations it'scalled a Part 135.
(19:10):
And that's how these charterplanes go from Vegas and this,
that and the other thing.
It's very costly to operate asa Part 135.
So they do have to charge thesehigher rates because they're
paying a lot more for that FAAdesignation, private people or
corporate travel departmentslike American Express.
American Express has a coupleof their own planes, bloomberg
has his own planes, goldmanSachs has a plane or two.
(19:32):
Right, they operate under aPart 91.
And that's a lot less expensiveto operate.
So my boss said well, whycouldn't we sort of have a
corporate travel department, orwe like to call it an internal
travel department for transplant?
So the way it works is the waythat we operate is we have our
own planes, we have three, we'repurchasing a fourth.
(19:55):
We have all our own vehicles,all our own employees, our own
pilots that are paid salariesand get a 401k and all that kind
of stuff that are on call andwe legally are allowed to
operate as this Part 91 foranyone that we contract with.
So if you're one of ourpartners, we're almost like a
(20:15):
subsidiary of that company.
So we assume all the risk forbuying or leasing the plane, the
fuel, the maintenance, thepilots.
But you know, we have theseplanes sitting there basically
waiting for our partners to callus.
So a benefit of that is and I'veheard this consistently it's
called a call out.
Right, oh, I'm going to need aplane.
You usually got to give acharter company like two hours.
(20:37):
They got a call the plane maybe someplace else.
It's called repositioning.
You got to reposition yourplane.
Our planes are all in onelocation right now and we can be
up in the air in under 60minutes typically 45, but we
tell people 60 minutes, which isamazing.
Right, that cuts a whole hourplus.
You know that we can getsomeplace and get that organ
transported somewhere quicker.
(20:57):
And the other thing that we'redoing is because we don't have
the high costs of operatingunder this way charters do, is
we offer fixed pricing.
I don't know of any othercompany in the industry that
offers fixed pricing.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
So it clearly costs less than $100,000.
What's your pricing like incomparison to what transplant
centers currently pay on average?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Well, it depends on the zone.
I'll just give you an exampleIf you stay within zone one,
it's like 16,000 and change,right, that's like 250 nautical
miles or something like that.
So that price will never change.
If you're anywhere, anytime youtravel within zone one, that's
(21:43):
the price.
So these hospitals, OPOs, theseother companies that use
private charters, they usuallyhave to call and say listen, I'm
going from Teterboro to Tampa,what's the price?
We tell our people you don'thave to call me.
I'm giving you the map of theUnited States, I'm giving you
the zone map and here's theprice list, if you will right.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
So it's the FedEx model.
So I use FedEx daily and Ialways the cost based on what
zone I'm shipping to and thefirst one variable is the weight
of the package.
It sounds just like the FedExmodel concept is.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
This is where I talk about transplant.
The concept is not new to theworld, right, but it's not been
used, has not been used intransplant, and why, I don't
know.
I think people just think thatthe current method is the only
method.
The other people that areoperating in this space are a
bit larger than we are, andiresyour company, do you replace
their existing transport?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
system, or are they using you in addition to
whatever transport system orsystems they're already using?
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That's a great question.
So we have no exclusivityclauses.
I would strongly encourage acompany to not put all their
eggs in one basket.
You know the National KidneyRegistry, just as an example,
has two courier companies thattransport the kidneys from point
A to point B.
But there are companies that dokind of like lock people in.
You know that doesn't benefitthe people who need the organ.
(23:32):
So the answer, as far as ourcompany goes, you know Mobile
Network 24,.
No, we work with one of ourpartners now that uses another
air company and that's totallycool.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Now.
So they're looking at itsituationally and there might be
cases where they use adifferent one because it makes
more sense for whatever reason.
Sure absolutely.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Three of the four people that we partner with use
us exclusively, but that's theirchoice.
My goal would be that peoplewould at least give a second
look at how they transportorgans and the companies that
they use to think about.
You know Mobile Network 24'sinternal travel department and
all the benefits that it couldhave you know, financial and
(24:13):
otherwise to your organization.
There's all this stuff thathappens in transplant that I see
on a regular basis, and it'sall because there are people who
are not open minded and I thinkthat they're a little reluctant
to change.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
So well for anyone listening who's interested in
cost savings and change.
I will make sure to put yourinformation in my show notes so
that they can contact youdirectly.
But, mike, I know another thingyou really want to talk about
today is your podcast.
So there's only a handful ofpodcasts that focus on organ
(24:45):
donation out there.
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Is that true?
I didn't look, because I onlyknow of one other one, yours.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
It's an uncommon and cool thing that we have in
common, but you've had morepodcasts than me, so you have a
one up there, so let's startwith the first one.
Tell us about your podcast.
One is Enough.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Sure, so One is Enough was the podcast that I
was a co-host on when I workedat the National Kidney Registry.
Someone said, you know, oh,maybe we should do a podcast.
I'm like, oh, that's kind ofinteresting.
So we ended up doing twoseasons and I really liked it
and you know, I got validation,sort of like when I was telling
my kidney story for the onemillionth time.
(25:24):
People were like, why do you doit?
Because throughout the last sixyears people have told me that
they have looked into donatingand donated because of the
article that I was in or theradio station or the news
broadcast, so which gives mevalidation to never stop.
It was great, I love doing it.
I think we had some greatcontent, some really great
(25:46):
episodes.
Honest Enough is still outthere if people want to listen
to it.
I mean I prefer you listen toDonor Diaries or the new podcast
, the newest, the rookie podcastcalled let's Talk Transplant,
which is now, I guess we'll sayindependently, mine, right, my
two anonymous donors who werewilling to fund, you know, the
(26:10):
startup of this podcast and youknow I have enough money to
produce six episodes.
So I think you, laurie Lee,said how hard it is to do the
editing and all of this stuff.
So I have a very small team butyou know, very small like one
person who helps me with allthat stuff.
So I really just have to kindof like show up, talk for an
hour and then and then leave.
So I just started it.
(26:33):
Episode zero is out there.
Let's call let's TalkTransplant wherever you listen
to podcasts, and I have recordedmy first episode, which will be
coming out February 4th.
My first guest is Kevin Longino, the CEO of the National Kidney
Foundation.
I am interviewing an OPO CEOfrom Ohio so we can learn more
(26:54):
about the organ procurementworld and all that kind of stuff
.
And then I have my third guestcommitted.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, theArchbishop of New York, has
agreed to come on let's TalkTransplanting.
He's very charismatic.
When I was with the policedepartment I worked on his
protection detail with his otherdetective that he has.
But there's a large number ofpeople who think that organ
(27:18):
donation, whether living ordeceased, is against their
religion.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yes, unfortunately, that's a common myth.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
So I said to myself, who can I get to sort of dispel
this myth?
He's one vote away from beingthe pope.
I mean, he's a cardinal, right,and if something happens to the
pope he could be almost thehighest in the land, right?
So I said let me see if hewould do it.
And I reached out to his peopleand I couldn't believe it.
He said, yeah, the Cardinalsaid he would gladly do it and I
have to email his people tolock in a date.
So that's my first three.
Oh, I have.
(27:51):
Oh, actually, I have someoneelse coming up too.
You know Kelly Schmidt, right?
Yep, yeah.
So Kelly Schmidt has an amazingstory and living and she's also
part of a two-time, if you will, donor, donor family.
So you know the podcast.
I want it to be everything andanything you could think of.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Congrats on your new podcast, Mike.
It sounds like an incrediblelineup.
Really happy for you.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That's cool.
So far right.
It's all downhill from there.
One podcast was not enough.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
So one actually wasn't enough, but that's okay,
because now we can listen tolet's talk transplant and get
our mic lalo fix again.
If you're missing, one isenough.
And for our listeners, checkout my show notes and I'll link
you to both of his podcasts.
I was a big fan of the firstone and I'm excited to hear
episode one of let's talktransplant, which launches
actually the same week as thisepisode you're listening to now.
(28:40):
Fan of the first one and I'mexcited to hear episode one of
let's Talk Transplant, whichlaunches actually the same week
as this episode you're listeningto now.
So lots of listening to Mikefor us all to look forward to
Mike.
In closing, what's the mostimportant thing you want our
audience to hear that youhaven't talked about today?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
The most important thing is for anyone out there
that still has two kidneys thatthey look into the possibility
of being a living kidney donor.
Today I don't know the exactnumber it's probably in the
neighborhood of 94,000 peoplewho are on the wait list, you
know, waiting for a kidney.
That doesn't account for the500,000, 600,000 people who are
(29:22):
on dialysis, so those people ondialysis can benefit also from a
kidney right.
So there's a lot of people outthere that need a kidney and we
just don't have enough resourcesthat we need to figure out ways
to increase.
You know organ donation now andyou know your podcast, my
podcast and the other you know10 or so podcasts that are out
(29:42):
there and any story about livingkidney donation, I think, is
truly important.
So if you're listening to this,I hope that Lori Lee and I
inspire you.
I think that's it, anythingelse.
Did I miss anything, lori?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
No, that was wonderful, Mike.
Thanks for a great interviewtoday.
Good luck with your podcast.
Huge congratulations.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Thank you.
You know we didn't get to talkabout that.
I was just gonna have to leavethis cliffhanger about you and I
have scuba diving in common,but maybe if I ever come on
again, we can talk more aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, we could have a scuba podcast.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Thank you, Lori.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I'd really like to show the world that Mike and
Lori can scuba dive in Bonaire.
We can scuba dive in Thailand.
Watch us go 100 feet in all ofthese different countries and if
you could just sponsor us, wecan prove to you that you can
scuba dive with one kidney.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
That would be.
What would my wetsuit look like?
Would it be like like I'd haveto have like kidney stuff all
over it?
That would be awesome.
For full disclosure, I haven'tdove in a very long time but I
am, you know, an advancedcertified PADI diver.
That's impressive.
I know you're like a masterdiver, I think.
Right, Aren't you?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
I'm a dive master.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
See, she's a dive master everybody.
So look for Lori Lee and MikeLalo's future podcasts.
We're going to have to come upwith a name like Diving for
Kidneys, or I don't know.
Figure it out.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right.
Thank you, mike, thanks Lori.
Special thanks to Mike for thisepisode, which was edited down
from a 90 minute conversation.
I also want to acknowledge twopeople who were edited out for
the sake of time Mike'srecipient, ruth, who ultimately
received Mike's non-directedkidney, and Mike's wife, megan,
who is truly amazing.
After Mike donated a kidney, afew years later, megan went
(31:23):
above and beyond, donating herliver to a co-worker.
The Lalo family is a family ofgivers and we should all be so
lucky to know people like Mikeand Megan.
Congrats, mike and Megan.
This season of Donor Diaries isproudly sponsored by GiftWorks,
(31:43):
an organization dedicated toempowering organ recipients and
living donors through education,advocacy and support.
By helping patients share theirjourneys and connect with
donors, giftworks ensureseveryone feels supported
throughout the transplantprocess.
We're honored to partner with ateam that's transforming lives,
one transplant at a time.
To learn more, visityourgiftworkscom.
Remember, every act of kindnesscreates ripples.
(32:06):
Thanks for listening and keepspreading those positive vibes.
This is Lori Lee signing off.
I just want to feel thesunshine.
I just want to feel thesunshine.
(32:30):
I share this life with you.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!