Donor Alliance hosted its signature event, the Donor Dash — a 5K run/walk to honor those who have given the gift of life, celebrate those who have received the gift of life and recognize those still waiting for a transplant. The Donor Dash was held at Washington Park in Denver July 18th.

The Donor Dash began in 2000 and has since evolved into one of the largest road races in the state of Colorado. More than 3,200 people and nearly 90 teams participated in this year’s event. Several hundred volunteers staffed the event. The generous support of 13 financial sponsors and 20 companies and organizations who hosted booths in the race expo, helped offset the cost of this year’s event.

There was fun for the whole family including a 5K run/walk, a 1K kid’s fun run and a diaper dash for toddlers under three. A special recognition ceremony was held after the race followed by a moment of silence and balloon release to honor donor families, recipients and transplant candidates. A Donate Life Garden honored donors and recipients with vibrant, personally decorated signs and flowers. Two hundred nine organ and tissue donors were recognized by name on the Wall of Honor.

“More than 28,000 lives are saved each year in the United States through the gift of organ donation, giving hope to the nearly 108,000 people in the U.S. and 2,000 people in Colorado and Wyoming who are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant,” said Jennifer Prinz, chief operating officer of Donor Alliance, the organ procurement organization and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and most of Wyoming. “Of those waiting in Colorado, 64 percent are in need of a kidney and one out of five current transplant candidates have been on the waiting list for five years or longer.”

According to Prinz, Coloradans are stepping up to meet the need and designating themselves as donors. In 2009, Colorado’s donor designation rate ranked as one of the highest in the nation with 64 percent of people obtaining or renewing their driver’s license saying ‘yes’ to donation.

“Each of the 542,670 Coloradans who registered to be organ donors last year at the Division of Motor Vehicles has the potential to save up to eight lives through organ donation and heal more than 100 through the gift of tissue donation,” explained Prinz.

Coloradans can register and save lives as organ donors regardless of their age or health. For example, it is possible to register as a donor even after having suffered from common diseases like diabetes or cancer.

How to register to be an organ and tissue donor:
You can save a life by registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. Register online at DonateLifeColorado.org; at the Division of Motor Vehicles the next time you obtain or renew your driver’s license; or by calling 1-888-256-4386 and requesting a donor registry form.

- Courtesy of Donor Alliance

One man in St. Rockford, Illinois recently showed the boundless limits of human generosity by giving the ultimate gift of life: he decided to donate one of his kidneys to a cashier he hardly knew. Read their heartwarming story here.

“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)

Nick Poto’s car crash came as a shock to Julie in February of 2007. She considered her son an excellent driver, yet also classified him as very adventurous and accident prone when not driving. When Julie received the call that Nick was in the hospital, she figured he’d just had another small mishap.

But her mood changed once she arrived at the hospital and was taken to speak with a neurosurgeon before being able to see Nick.

“It was an absolute sinking feeling,” she said.

Julie learned that Nick’s car had been t-boned by oncoming traffic and the impact had sheared his brain. Desperate attempts to relieve the swelling and pressure on his brain were unable to save him. 

When Julie was approached by the Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network, she recalled Nick and her decision to sign him up as a donor when he had received his driver’s license.

 “He said ‘I suppose I have to sign up for this, because you recycle everything,’” Julie recalled with affection. “He always said he was going to make a difference in this world, I just never knew it was going to be like this.”

Nick’s gift of life resulted in 18 tissue and four organ transplants. Julie has found great solace in hearing from several of the recipients, including a father of four who received Nick’s heart.

“He wrote to me ‘although I don’t know you, I know that I love you. My heart tells me this,’” she said.

But even before Nick’s accident, Julie’s family had become intimately aware of the donation process. Her daughter Lindsey Poto, now 25, suffered from a congenital clubfoot anomaly, which resulted in a collapsed ankle and a progressively worsening condition. Lindsey was in a wheelchair with no use of the foot by the time she was a teenager.

Doctors said that Lindsey’s best hope was an ankle transplant. They put her on the transplant list, but knew that finding a bone match for an ankle would be especially difficult, as the size needed to match Lindsey’s body almost exactly.

Nevertheless, Julie’s family received the miracle they needed for Lindsey not once, but twice. Her first transplant was unsuccessful, but her second transplant, done nearly a year ago, has remained viable and for the first time in years Lindsey is able to walk without crutches or braces. Julie is thoughtful about seeing the marvel of donation come full circle.

“If you’re looking to receive, you must be willing to give,” she said.

Lindsey is a University of Iowa graduate and works as an account manager for a logistics company in Chicago. She has written a letter to the family that donated her ankle.

Julie said she still thinks of Nick each day.

“I’m so grateful that I have Nick’s gifts – it’s a comfort for me to know that he lives on in others. And someone else did the same to help Lindsey.”

Donor father Tim Joos visits AlloSource to share the brave story of his teenage daughter, donor Samantha Joos.

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.

We have published the Allograph as an internal newsletter for years, but in this hyper-connected world we’ve decided it’s time to grow its audience and expand its content. We are pleased to share with you – our Organ Procurement Agency and dedicated healthcare professional partners – all of the great things that are happening at AlloSource.

Here surgeons, nurses and consumers will find constantly updated information about allograft tissue and the patients and families it touches. This site will include in the coming months: personal entries from me, videos of patient stories, tours of our facilities and tissue processing, the latest research regarding allograft tissue and more.

The process of tissue donation, recovery, processing and subsequent transplantation is truly one of the miracles in healthcare today. People who can’t walk without pain can be healed. Critically burned patients can use allograft skin to cover their wounds. Chronic pain from neck or lower back issues can be eliminated. Your role in this process is integral to making these possibilities realities.

I hope you enjoy AllograftPossibilities.org. Contact information can be found under the “Who We Are” tab so let us know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Thanks for all that you do for the donor and donor families as well as the recipients who receive the gift of life.

Tom Cycyota, Chief Executive Officer