HN Summary
• Sandra Ricketts-Fusca, a Patient Care Coordinator at Scarborough Health Network, has been recognized with the 2025 Provincial Donation Champion Award for her decades-long commitment to organ and tissue donation.
• With 36 years in healthcare, Sandra plays a critical role in coordinating surgical teams and supporting organ recovery procedures, often stepping in clinically to ensure care is delivered with precision, respect, and compassion.
• Her work reflects the collaborative nature of donation, helping transform loss into life-saving opportunities and contributing to the growing number of organ and tissue transplants across Ontario.
It is important to recognize the life-saving impact of organ and tissue donation and the healthcare professionals who make this work possible every day.
At Scarborough Health Network (SHN), that commitment is reflected in team members like Sandra Ricketts-Fusca, a Patient Care Coordinator in the Surgery Department at General Hospital, who has been honoured with the 2025 Provincial Donation Champion Award from Ontario Health’s Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN).
The Provincial Donation Champion Award recognizes healthcare professionals across Ontario who demonstrate exceptional dedication to advancing organ and tissue donation, giving more people across the country a second chance at life. In 2025 alone, Ontario saw 1,088 life-saving organ transplants made possible through the support of 362 organ donors, and 2,051 tissue donors. Milestones like these rely on the expertise and compassion of professionals like Sandra.
Sandra’s role as a Patient Care Coordinator is both complex and essential to the smooth and safe operation of the OR. She serves as a central link between surgeons, anesthetists, and nursing staff, ensuring each surgical day runs efficiently while maintaining the highest standards of patient care. While her work often focuses on coordination, Sandra regularly steps in to provide hands-on clinical and organ recovery support.
Her journey at SHN spans an extraordinary 36 years. Sandra began her career on a respiratory and medical unit before moving into the operating room (OR), where she has spent the majority of her career. For her, working in surgery was always the goal.
“I always knew the OR would be my final stop,” she shared. “It’s where I feel most connected to the work. And when it comes to donations, I feel fulfilled assisting those procedures with honour and respect to the donors.”
Throughout her time in the OR, Sandra has played a vital role in organ and tissue donation, supporting cases from the earliest days of donation procedures at SHN. As a coordinator, she works closely with donation specialists to organize teams, prepare operating rooms, and ensure each case proceeds with precision and respect. Even in this role, she continues to assist clinically, scrubbing in whenever another nurse is needed in the OR.
“Being present in the OR during a donation recovery is a profound responsibility that not everyone would choose to take on,” shared Lori-Lee James, Director of Surgery. “Sandra rises to this responsibility with compassion and support to the donor’s family during the transition from loss to the life-saving impact their gift will have to another person.”
Sandra describes organ donation as a deeply collaborative effort grounded in teamwork, respect, and shared responsibility.
“No one stands alone,” she explained. “It takes every single person working together to make donation possible.”
Sandra focuses on the lives saved and improved through donation, which continues to motivate her decades into her career. When she learned she had been selected for the Provincial Donation Champion Award, she was both surprised and deeply honoured.
“I didn’t expect it,” she said. “But it reminds me why I do this work. It’s about the impact we make, and the lasting results of more lives being saved.”
Her dedication extends beyond individual cases. Over 36 years, Sandra has built a reputation for reliability, professionalism, and a steadfast commitment to patient care. Inspired early on by caring for her grandmother, she has remained devoted to nursing as both a profession and a calling.
“As both a patient care coordinator and OR nurse, she consistently demonstrates outstanding mentorship, deep compassion and respect for donors, and a steadfast commitment to safe donation recovery,” shared Amanda Firth, Director of Critical Care.
As SHN recognizes Be a Donor Month, Sandra’s contributions serve as a powerful reminder of the impact healthcare professionals can have in giving the gift of life. Through her work, and the work of teams across the network, patients and families are given hope in the most difficult moments, and lives are transformed through the generosity of organ and tissue donation.