AlloSource’s H.C. Martensen forges a deeper connection
to his work
Tissue bank employee and transplant recipient H.C. Martensen in the 2008 Vineman Iron Distance Triathlon in California. Now, five months after his ligament transplant, H.C. is recovering well and planning to participate in a triathlon in June.
H.C. Martensen works in the AlloSource tissue processing core where he is faced with the powerful realities and possibilities of tissue donation and transplantation every day. He also has the utmost confidence in the allografts that he and his tissue bank colleagues produce, so much so that he recently requested one for his own transplant.
Over the summer H.C. returned to his former university, Colorado College in Colorado Springs, for an alumni soccer game. He played on the team in college, and since then remained very athletic, participating in triathlons and skiing. However, at the time of the game, it had been a while since he’d played soccer. Following a cutting motion on the field he felt his leg let go below the knee. H.C. instantly knew what had occurred, not only because of his work, but also because a close friend had sustained a torn ACL just three days prior.
Shortly thereafter a surgeon confirmed it – H.C.’s ACL and lateral meniscus were torn and he needed surgery and an allograft transplant. Although the surgeon did not historically use allografts from AlloSource, H.C. made a special request to have his graft come from the tissue bank. (more…)
Account from the North American Spine Society meeting
AlloSource recently showcased AlloStem Bone Graft Substitute at this year’s NASS meeting in Orlando. Dr. Eubulus Kerr, a spinal surgeon from Shreveport Louisiana, presented a review of his clinical usage of AlloStem tissue in spine fusion procedures. Dr. Kerr presented follow-up from cervical and lumbar fusion cases with up to six months of follow up and very encouraging early results. Many of the attending surgeons stayed after the presentation had formally ended to discuss the AlloStem technology with attendees and AlloSource staff. One surgeon who attended the seminar has already completed his first surgery with the AlloStem tissue, implanting the tissue for spinal fusion.
The conference validated that live cellular products are the direction the industry is heading, so stay tuned.
This week we were pleased to chat with Dr. Francis, a podiatric surgeon from Tulsa, about his use of allograft tissue and his hopes for tissue transplant in the future.
I am proud to announce that this month AlloSource was named Colorado’s top healthcare company as judged by the local business magazine ColoradoBiz. That said I know that this honor is not ours alone, but rather speaks to the overall impact of tissue donation and transplantation.
We share this distinction with a handful of important partners:
The donors and donor families who make the powerful decision to give the gift of life, and make everything that we do possible. We continue to make it a top priority to honor their gifts with integrity and humanity, and share the important stories of the tissue recipients whose lives they save or enhance.
Our organ procurement organization partners who work diligently to promote the cause of tissue donation. Thanks to their efforts, donor consent for tissue donation has increased by nearly 30 percent among this group – a staggering result!
All the medical professionals who bring the gift of life full circle by treating patients with our allografts, delivering amazing results. We are proud to continue our work with a number of surgeons around the country to advance the possibilities of tissue transplantation with the testing of new allografts.
Thank you for your contributions to the miraculous process of tissue donation and transplantation.
Novel approaches in wound healing seek to supply to the wound with biologic factors that are thought to be absent in the chronic wound. This support for regenerative wound repair is being reinforced by sizeable grants for such research, like the pair of recent U.S. Army grants totaling $760,000 awarded to Lakshmi Nair at the University of Connecticut to study the regenerative repair of musculoskeletal tissue, like skin, cartilage and bone.
In improper wound healing, cells can show either an exaggerated or inadequate response to molecular healing signals, leading to problematic wound site inflammation or stalled wound healing. Dr. Nair’s approach seeks to ‘modulate’ the local wound site with regenerative biomaterials, specifically, a polysaccharide compound that adapts to the irregular geometries characteristic of tissue defects, while acting as carriers for known wound-healing cells and protein growth factors. Also in the works is a protein-based injectable biomaterial that seeks to regenerate compromised bone and cartilage. Using organic molecules like these, Dr. Nair hopes to deliver cost-effective, biologically active treatments that will rescue improper wound healing and stimulate the replacement of lost bone and cartilage.
- Jessica Duncan, AlloSource Product Manager – Burn and Wound Care
We are so pleased to see media coverage of tissue transplantation, because it can have life-saving and life-enhancing benefits just like organ transplantation. However, tissue donation is still lesser understood.
Kudos to the Lubbock FOX network for shedding light on this issue, noting “a tissue donor has the ability to help a burn victim or give a star athlete a chance to return to their sport after a major injury like tearing of an ACL. Across the nation there is a massive demand for skin as well as sports-related orthopedic tissue.”
We are thrilled to see that students across the country are joining the cause of organ and tissue donation and donor registration through the Students for Organ Donation organization. Here in Colorado two universities (University of Colorado and Colorade State University) have made the quest to register donors a friendly competition – what a great activity! Check out CU’s Students for Organ Donation website here.
We are pleased to introduce our 2011 Tournament of Roses Donate Life
float rider
In 2006 Parker Simpson was an active teenager, ambitious academically and involved in a number of sports including football, lacrosse and wrestling. It was that year, as a high school sophomore, that a sports injury to his ankle soon landed him on the doctor’s table. Parker discovered that he had developed osteomyelitis, a staph infection of the bone, in his tibia and fibula. But he couldn’t have foreseen that this was the beginning of a trying medical journey that would test the resolve of both him and his family for years to come.
Parker was faced with possible amputation of his leg several times as a result of the infection. A successive back injury was further complicated due to the existing illness in his bones. He underwent numerous operations to combat the ankle and back afflictions, resulting in a fused ankle and foot, and yet his young body was just beginning its battle to survive. (more…)
I found this article very interesting and intriguing as it relates to the repair of articular cartilage utilizing amnion tissue, the membrane that encases the placenta. As the article conveys, it is a versatile tissue that has the potential to serve as a solution to the challenges of healing wounds and other soft tissue ailments. What is also great is that it makes use of the placenta following c-section births, when it would otherwise be discarded. Most recently, several companies have begun manufacturing and distributing amnion to assist surgeons with procedures involving neurology, spine and orthopedics. I look forward to providing the medical community with new ways to use amnion. Check out the article I read to learn more about how amnion tissue could be used in the future.
- Tom Carter, Product Manager
The theme of this year’s 27th annual meeting of the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) was Focus on the Future.
The Tissue Council Meeting headed up the agenda on day one. The Tissue Council membership is made up of representatives from many different OPOs and tissue banks across the country. The highlight of the council meeting was a panel discussion held between attendees and senior representatives from the major tissue processors in the US. The panelists discussed the changing landscape of tissue banking and what they foresee the course of tissue transplantation will be in the future, including cells/live cell grafts as the future of tissue donation.
Frank Bodino, President of Transplant Speakers International, called attention to the importance of tissue donation this week in the company’s newsletter. The newsletter also features the moving story of Manuel Salazar, a quadruple amputee who received life-saving allografts from AlloSource.
To read more about tissue donation and Manuel’s story, check out the newsletter here.
A recent bill sponsored by New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky proposes that all New Yorkers be automatically registered as organ donors. Under the new bill, residents would have to actively opt-out of being an organ donor, with the hope that bill will increase the number of registered donors. Read more about the proposed bill here.
If passed, this law would be the first of its kind in the nation. What do you think about the opt-out bill?
We are pleased to congratulate tissue recipient May Chen on being named Tai Chi master of the Year 2010 by the 12th World Congress on Qigong and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Five years ago, we were fortunate to meet Chen, an internationally recognized martial artist and Tai Chi instructor and a truly inspiring person. Chen risked losing her career following a severe knee injury, but has experienced a remarkable recovery following a transplanted allograft from AlloSource. Chen has returned to martial arts competition with great success and has become a friendly advocate of tissue donation. (Chen represented AlloSource as a float rider aboard the 2009 Donate Life float in the Tournament of Roses Parade.)
China is quickly becoming a powerhouse in the field of regenerative medicine; however, despite the country’s obvious commitment to the cause and rapid successes in the field, they are also being questioned by worldwide authorities on regenerative medicine for their willingness to use unverified stem cell techniques in Chinese clinics and hospitals. Though they are continuing to make great strides, the lack of governmental regulation places a burden on the burgeoning research.
A recent article on ScienceProgress.org details the intricate struggle.
What do you think about the Chinese approach to regenerative medicine? What, if any, are the implications for the US?
When helping was critical, the AlloSource team sprang into action.
AlloSource is one of the largest suppliers of allograft skin for burns in the nation. Burn skin is central to our mission and helps us play a part in saving people’s lives each and every day.
We service major medical centers in our core communities as well as in other communities across the nation and AlloSource is first to get the call when a crisis event happens. On January 26 we got the call again.
U.S. Air Force C-130 airplanes landed in Tampa, Florida last week with severely burned survivors of the Haitian earthquake inside. The patients were immediately transferred to Tampa General Hospital, one of our large allograft burn skin customers. The procurement coordinator at Tampa General was looking for all the skin that we could provide them to cope with their immediate and future needs. Tampa has implemented their disaster plan for burns and is now working around the clock on surgeries in the burn center.
Immediately the AlloSource team sprang into action releasing 55 square feet of skin. (more…)
Check out a few photos from the stunning float, featuring AlloSource’s float rider Manuel Salazar, a courageous quadruple amputee and tissue recipient.
For a third consecutive year, Donate Life was among the Rose Parade float award winners. This year’s “New Life Rises” entry won the prestigious Theme Trophy for Excellence in Presenting the Parade Theme, “A Cut Above The Rest.”
Additionally, ABC conducted a text-message poll allowing their millions of viewers to select their favorite float. The winner: Donate Life!
We are very proud to this year be sponsoring Manuel Salazar as a float rider in the 2010 Rose Bowl Parade aboard the Donate Life float. Manuel was rendered a quadruple amputee following a devastating construction site accident. Thanks to his incredible spirit and determination as well as allograft tissue transplants, Manuel now thrives as a quadruple amputee.
Last month, a team from AlloSource traveled to the North American Spine Society (NASS) annual meeting in San Francisco, where we unveiled two pioneering new products: AlloStem Stem Cell Bone Growth Substitute and AlloWrap Natural Wound Cover.
Orthopedic spine surgeons at the event told us how powerful AlloStem Stem Cell Bone Growth Substitute, a new bone growth substitute made from adult stem cells, will be as a biologic solution. The second product we introduced, AlloWrap Natural Wound Cover, is a natural biological wound cover that has shown impressive results in animal studies.
This was a key industry meeting for us, as AlloSource is now the world’s largest processor of live cellular bone growth substitutes – an accomplishment we’re very proud of. At the show we mingled with some of the world’s spine care leaders; there were nearly 4,000 in attendance from all over the globe.
Check out our brief video (above) for a tour of the AlloSource booth at the event.
Julie Prangl has experienced the heartbreak, loss, hope and awe that come from being on both sides of organ and tissue donation. Her 17-year-old son became an organ and tissue donor after losing his life in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, Julie’s daughter became the recipient of an ankle transplant that relieved her from a lifelong debilitating condition.
“It’s ironic,” Julie said. “All of the sudden you’re looking at something from the exact opposite side. The fact that these things are possible on both ends … it really is a miracle.”
Julie Prangl and her children, Christmas 2006. Son Nick died 6 weeks later in a car accident and became an organ and tissue donor. Daughter Lindsey later received an ankle transplant. (Photo courtesy Julie Prangl)
AlloSource is the world’s largest processor of fresh cartilage, skin allografts and live cellular bone growth substitutes, including adult stem cell grafts. Most of the public is not aware that adult stem cells can be recovered and transplanted without controversy from adult human organ and tissue donors.
AlloStem Stem Cell Bone Growth Substitute, an adult human stem cell bone graft, is recovered from adult human adipose tissue and is processed and cryopreserved by AlloSource into a stem cell bone graft used by surgeons to promote bone growth and healing. Adipose tissue is a rich source of a wide variety of stem cells, and some laboratory studies indicate it is the human body’s primary source of stem cells. (more…)
Discover the variety of clinical applications for bone and tissue allografts, including orthopaedic, spine, sports medicine, oral maxillofacial, podiatry, periodontal, urology, oncology and trauma.
Or, learn more about skin allografts used for the treatment of burns, including function, structure, donor recovery and clinical application.
The following byline from AlloSource has appeared in hundreds of media outlets around the country
Amidst the constantly changing world of medicine, innovative research from some of the world’s leading surgeons is finding new ways to use donated human tissue to treat a host of medical conditions.
Registered donors and their families donate this allograft tissue in the same way organs are donated. It is used in many life-saving and enhancing medical procedures already, with numerous new opportunities on the horizon.
Are these new made up words? If you’re connected to the high communication environment, you know that these are all ways to get and share information with other people. Who would have imagined as little as several years ago that a messaging website called Twitter would have more than 7 million participating members today? It’s been incredible to watch the alternate methods people have found to stay connected with one another.
And on that note, to help AlloSource communicate with its various stakeholders, we bring you our new blog, AllograftPossibilities.org.
The following byline from AlloSource has appeared in hundreds of media outlets around the country
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