U.S. Marshall John Perry was shot and killed in the line of duty while serving his community. After his death, Perry continued to serve his community by saving and enhancing over 100 lives through organ and tissue donation. See the following video to hear about his legacy in life and in death.
We are excited to see army veteran and burn survivor-turned actor J.R. Martinez bravely putting a public face to the topic of burn treatment, via his starring role on Dancing with the Stars this season. The story of this skin recipient is a great source of hope for other burn survivors around the country struggling with the lasting scars of their injuries.
About J.R. via Dancing with the Stars: J.R. Martinez is an Iraq war veteran, motivational speaker and actor on ABC’s All My Children. In April 2003, at 19 years old, J.R. was serving as a Humvee driver for the U.S. Army in Iraq when his left front tire hit a landmine. He suffered smoke inhalation and severe burns to more than 40 percent of his body. J.R. was immediately evacuated and sent to Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) in San Antonio where he spent 34 months in recovery. Since his injury, he has undergone 33 different surgeries, including skin grafts and cosmetic surgery. While in recovery, he started speaking to other burn patients within the hospital, sharing his experiences and listening to theirs. News of his story and efforts to help others quickly spread, first on a local level and then to national circuits, leading to appearances on Oprah, 60 Minutes, CNN and more.
Bilingual in English and Spanish, J.R. has traveled the country since 2004, spreading his message of resilience and optimism. Today he is a sought-after motivational speaker and has shared the stage with many notable individuals. In October 2008, J.R. joined the cast of ABC’s Emmy® Award-winning daytime drama All My Children as combat veteran Brot Monroe.
Allograft skin transplants (skin from deceased tissue donors) are crucial to saving and healing burn victims, as they provide a temporary cover until the wound is ready to accept the patient’s own skin or until the patient’s limited donor sites are available for autografting.
When Devin Katacinski was just 12 years old he sustained second-degree burns after spilling a cup of scalding coffee on his arm. The coffee immediately took the skin off from the bottom of his thumb to the middle of his forearm.
Here Devin discusses his injury, and recovery, which was thanks in part to a skin transplant processed by tissue bank AlloSource. Devin reflects on how he feels to have received this gift of life from a donor.
A chat with Dr. Richard Kagan about his use of allograft tissue as a burn surgeon, and what tissue donation means to him
Dr. Kagan is the Chief of Staff at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Cincinnati and Professor of Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Q: Describe why allograft skin is crucial to save and heal burn victims.
A: It provides a temporary wound cover until the wound is ready to accept the patient’s own skin or until the patient’s limited donor sites are available for autografting.
Q: Why do you use allograft skin for the treatment of burns, versus synthetic materials?
A: I use a combination of both, but 90% of the time fresh allograft is my preference because it will vascularize and adhere to the wound bed better. Allograft tissue creates a temporary wound cover that permits the patient’s condition to improve without the need to create an additional wound from the harvesting of autologous skin. My use is predominantly in deep and/or extensive burns in which case the allograft tissue is potentially lifesaving, but I also use it in the treatment of small burns, abrasion injuries and infected wounds because of its reliable effectiveness.
Q: What do you look forward to in terms of new innovations and new possibilities for tissue transplantation in the future?
A: I’d like to see day when the viability of allograft skin is actually measurable and repeatable so when a surgeon wants fresh or viable skin there’s a measure that implies or guarantees a standard. I’d also like to see more techniques developed to store and maintain the viability of allogeneic tissue, so we don’t have to hope the timing of a donation and a clinical need coincide. (more…)
Devin was a typical 12-year-old: an active boy who loved to play soccer and spend time with his friends. Unfortunately, an accident put Devin’s life on pause.
On a Sunday morning at church, Devin was pouring a cup of coffee when the cup slipped and he spilled the coffee on his arm. “When it spilled on my arm, my long-sleeve shirt started clinging to my skin, and my skin was bubbling on my hand,” said Devin. The hot coffee immediately took the skin off from the bottom of his thumb, to the middle of his forearm.
Devin was rushed to the emergency room where he was diagnosed with second degree burns. “They wrapped up my arm, put chemical water on it to cool it and dumped it in a tub, which made it very numb. They also gave me pain killers that put me asleep for a few hours,” explained Devin.
Following treatment at the emergency room, Devin was referred to the Joseph M Still Burn Center at WellStar Cobb Hospital in Austell, Georgia where he remembers noticing that everyone’s burns were so much more severe than his own. Within hours, he was taken into surgery where the doctors removed the burned skin and placed allograft skin on top of it. Allograft skin is a gift of life from a deceased human donor. The days following consisted of a lot of sleep and saltine crackers, but it was the donor skin that really helped in the healing process. The proteins in the donor skin were ideal to help to heal the burn and encourage Devin’s body to regenerate new skin. (more…)
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.”
Ever wondered what goes on behind closed doors at AlloSource? Take a quick behind-the-scenes look at tissue banking R&D, with AlloSource Vice President of R&D, Simon Bogdansky.
A short tour of the leading laboratory where AlloSource develops new life-saving and life-enhancing tissue allografts
Discover the laboratory where AlloSource ensures the safety of its allografts
Take a look inside AlloSources cutting-edge stem cell laboratory, where the company is developing new types of allografts that promote tissue regeneration
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…)
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.
The following byline from AlloSource has appeared in hundreds of media outlets around the country
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