Families from south central Wisconsin gathered to light candles over the weekend to remember some departed loved ones who brought hope and life to others.
The “Reflections of Life, Reflections of Love” ceremony was a chance for families to honor loved ones who helped save someone’s life through tissue donation.
“When you lose a loved one, you don’t want them forgotten, so it’s a way to have them remembered,” said Loni Wednt, whose departed mother and daughter were both donors. “And you are with people, others who know what you’ve gone through, and they understand that too, so you don’t have to be afraid to cry or share your feelings.”
Overall, organ and tissue donation rates are rising, but not enough to fill the need of patients. There are still misconceptions about what various religions teach on the topic of donation. This article examines this discussion – an important read.
Says the article: “no major religion prohibits organ donation. Some faiths leave the decision up to the individual. Others actively encourage organ and tissue donation as an act of love and charity. Pope Benedict XVI has been outspoken in favor of donation and carried a donor card himself until he assumed the papal throne, according to the Vatican.”
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has released a new Public Service Announcement aimed at creating awareness about organ and tissue donation in the African-American community. August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month. The PSA features 14-year-old heart recipient Mikahla Thornton from Bloomington, Illinois.
“Mikahla’s triumphant story will likely inspire the millions of listeners who have not yet registered as organ and tissue donors to learn more,” White said. “We are confident that the message in this PSA will help to save lives.”
Studies have shown that people of the same ethnic group prove to be better matches for organ donation, according to Gift of Hope.
Though the choice is different for each person, the decision to become an organ donor has the potential to turn a tragic situation into hope for others.
Recently, two Anne Arundel County residents provided that hope.
Terry Elvin Potts of Glen Burnie had his organs removed for donation after he was fatally injured when his car hit a utility pole in Shady Side.
And Kara Micciche, a 17-year-old Broadneck High School student who was fatally injured July 12 while crossing Ritchie Highway, played a part in helping seven people when her organs were donated.
Micciche and Potts are two of about 40 deceased donors in the state so far this year, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network website.
They were also two of nearly 2.2 million people in the state — about 48 percent of Maryland’s population — registered to be organ donors, said Natalie Benavides, executive director of Donate Life Maryland, which runs the Maryland donor registry.
There are more than one million tissue transplants performed annually in the U.S that save lives, relieve pain, improve mobility and even regenerate cells to form new skin and bone. Donated human tissue is processed into usable “allografts” for surgeons by tissue banks. The tissue banking industry is highly regulated by federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) along with state and local regulatory bodies to promote the safety of patients.
Another key group that promotes safety standards and best practices for honoring tissue donors is the nonprofit American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB). Since its founding in 1976, the AATB has promoted the safety, quality and availability of donated human tissue. The AATB is now considered the definitive source on safety and standards in the tissue banking industry, and most tissue banks in the country elect to become AATB-certified in a show of commitment to the organization’s high standards.
So why is the AATB important to you and me? The organization:
Saves and improves lives of tissue recipients
Makes tissue transplants safer for patients in need
Ensures respectful treatment of tissue donors who have given the gift of life, by making certain that their gifts are maximized and produce safe and quality results
Promises that new, safe possibilities for tissue transplantation will continue to emerge (more…)
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.
The NJ Sharing Network’s first-ever SHARE NJ 5K Race to Save Lives Through Organ & Tissue Donation held last month in New Providence was a huge success. The event included more than 4,000 participants, including volunteers, children, transplant recipients, donor families, and sponsors. The 5K additionally helped to raise more than $443,000 for the cause.
Congrats to all who participated in this inaugural event!
Check out this red carpet video from the 2011 Donate Life Hollywood Inspire Awards last week.
This includes interviews with several Hollywood insiders (including Jack Black, Brad Ellis of Glee, Ryan Merriman and others) who have made significant contributions to the organ and tissue donation community. Great to see these folks leveraging their voices for the cause!
Says Black, on those who register to be donors: “it takes courage to do it … I admire anyone who is so selfless to do such a thing.”
The Donor Dash is a 5K run/walk to honor the lives of organ and tissue donors, celebrate the lives of organ and tissue recipients and recognize those who continue to wait for a lifesaving transplant.
Coordinated by organ recovery organization Donor Alliance, the Dash is in its 12th Year and is always a fantastic event.
If you live in or near Denver, we encourage you to come out and participate Sunday, July 17 in Washington Park. Click here to register and for more information.
We were moved by this column from the San Antonio Express-News urging people to register as organ and tissue donors. The author poetically notes:
“From time immemorial, the capacity of the human heart, to do both good and evil, has been contemplated by philosophers, poets and priests. Its best and purest impulse pushes people to remarkable acts of generosity and selflessness of which the most supreme is to save a life.”
Unfortunately San Antonio has a low donor consent rate. The columnist works with a tissue recovery specialist from the UT Health Science Center of San Antonio’s Organ Transplant team to disple commonly heard myths about organ and tissue donation, which may keep some people from consenting to donate.
A worthwhile read and great rally call in support of organ and tissue donation.
“As a registered nurse, I have solicited and educated families about organ and tissue donation,” said Margie Mayfield. “However, as a mom receiving this precious gift, it is truly beyond anything I can imagine.”
In 2010, Margie tore her ACL while playing with a child in an inflatable jumping house that she was sponsoring at a church event. Immediately after the injury she was unable to straighten her leg or bear weight on it. Following an MRI that confirmed the tear, Margie decided right away that she would pursue an allograft tissue transplant to repair her knee, if possible.
“I love to bike, play tennis, power walk and swim,” said Margie. “With the injury I was limited. I had a neighbor living with the same injury and I didn’t want to do the same thing.”
However, the gift of tissue donation was not something that Margie took lightly or for granted.
“I was educated in what it means to have donated organs or tissue available, and I trust the system,” said Margie, who works as a parish nurse. “It’s also a faith journey. I want to live my life fully and this offered me fullness and I didn’t want to pass that up.” (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…)
As medicine continues to advance, so too do possibilities for tissue donation and transplant. One of the latest medical treatments available use stem cells from tissue donors.
Check out this exciting story out of Baltimore with Dr. Mark Myerson, director of Mercy Medical Center’s Institute for Foot and Ankle Reconstruction. Dr. Myerson used AlloStem Stem Cell Bone Growth Substitute to re-grow bone in the ankle of a woman from New Jersey who was originally told her leg would have to be amputated following a devastating car accident.
Cameron Chana was the eldest of four children and a born leader, said his mother, Lori. “He led our family into the new areas of family, sports, church, travel, adolescent and teenage relationships and education. He was also truly gifted at developing relationships. As a son, brother, relative or friend, Cameron set the benchmark on caring, supporting and loving others.”
During his high school years, Cameron worked at a pharmacy, volunteered at a hospital and was very involved with the Chana family’s church. He went on mission trips to Seattle, Czech Republic and Dominican Republic and was always focused on kids – helping, guiding and directing them to focus on the positive things in life.
Cameron attended college at Eastern Illinois University (EIU) and became very involved with the Sigma Pi fraternity. He graduated from EIU with a degree in marketing on May 9, 2009, and was accepted into their MBA program to begin on June 15. Tragically, twenty-two-year old Cameron was killed in a bus accident two weeks before he would have started his MBA. (more…)
Tom Cycyota, the CEO of nonprofit tissue bank AlloSource, and tissue recipient Sarah Tomicich, who also works at AlloSource, were interviewed for this important story during Donate Life Month. This is a great reminder that tissue donation can have the same life-saving and life-enhancing benefits of organ donation.
It was the holidays in 2005 and Sarah Tomicich was a young professional excited about her new job in the finance department of a large Denver company. Fun-loving and outgoing, Sarah was happy to offer up her talents for the playful “Stupid Human Tricks” competition at the company’s annual year-end party.
Sarah’s trick was a squirm-inducing move she’d been doing since she was a little girl: rising up on her tip toes, she would rotate her feet until her toes were pointing straight behind her body, with her legs still together. But the trick didn’t go smoothly this time.
“My ankle popped; I thought I broke it,” Sarah said. “The pain was so bad. It was horrible.”
During an initial trip to the doctor, Sarah’s injury was misdiagnosed as a sprain. She went home hoping it would heal on its own. For the next several years Sarah tried to deal with the pain, but her ankle was never the same. The injury began to take a serious toll on her active lifestyle: she could no longer do the things she loved, including skiing and running. She would push herself to play team sports like kickball, but be miserable from the pain for days afterwards. (more…)
We are honored to share this video blog from donor parents Pat and Jay Landers of Springfield, IL. Here Pat and Jay remember their son, Ryan, who was killed in a car accident and became an organ and tissue donor. So far, Ryan’s gifts have impacted 61 recipients in at least 12 states and Korea through 2 organ, 54 tissue and 5 vascular transplants.
Pat and Jay share in their own words what it has meant to them to be a donor family.
We were so pleased to meet this brave donor family via the Gift of Hope organ procurement organization.
Congratulations to New York state, where the Association of County Clerks has partnered with the New York Alliance for Donation to help increase registrations of organ, tissue and eye donors.
One local official has a particularly personal connection to the cause, via Little Falls Times: ”In a release about the local effort, county Administrator James Wallace, who received a kidney transplant from his brother, urged everyone to consider becoming an organ and tissue donor.
‘I was extremely fortunate to have a match with my brother who stepped up to save my life. I also know that there are thousands of people who are not as fortunate. I hope that you will take a minute or two to consider this gift,’ he said.”
Brochures, posters and enrollment forms alerting customers of the donor crisis can be found in DMV offices in NY.
Organized by Donate Life Arizona as part of Donate Life Month, last week transplant recipients and donor families gathered at the AZ State Capitol in celebration of Donate Life Day.
“The event served a special purpose this year, providing an opportunity for state lawmakers to meet those who have received a second chance at life through organ donation. These same lawmakers will continue to address the controversy over state Republicans decision to cut Medicaid funds to those in need of life saving transplants.” Read the full article here.
Do you have questions about tissue donation, what tissues can be donated and how it is used? Ask us here and we’re happy to help inform you.
Donate Life America is also an excellent resource for facts about organ, tissue and cornea donation. Also, from that website you can find out how to register to be a donor in your home state.
Please read this remarkable story from the New York Times about a young man’s kidney transplant, and his deep connection to his donor.
The recipient, Antwan Hunter, received the transplant at just 16 years old, from then 21-year-old Jason Kendall Ray, who sustained massive brain injuries after being hit by a car while walking along a busy street.
Notes the article: “asked if there was one thing he would have wanted Jason Ray to know about him, Antwan thought for a moment and said, ‘I guess that when I got my first driver’s license, I signed up to be a donor.’”
Remember this Donate Life Month: Tissue donation can have the same life-saving and life-enhancing benefits as organ donation. Each year, tissue is provided by approximately 30,000 tissue donors, and one tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people.
This article from the McCook Daily Gazette includes an important statistic:
98 percent of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86 percent have heard of tissue donation
While the number of adults who have heard of tissue donation is definitely climbing, it still lags behind awareness of organ donation. The uses for donated tissue are a bit more complicated than they are for organs, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that they have the same life-saving and enhancing benefits.
This tissue, referred to as allograft tissue, is donated by registered donors and their families, in the same way organs are donated, and it is used in many medical procedures already, with numerous new opportunities on the horizon.
Donated human tissue is used in many surgical applications, saving peoples’ lives and limbs daily. Allograft tissue is used to replace damaged structures in the body, from the ligaments and tendons of major league sports players, bones and joints of military men and women, to the musculoskeletal structures, teeth, skin, and spinal components of average citizens.
Here at AllograftPossibilities we strive to increase awarness of tissue donation and transplant. Have a question? We’d be happy to answer it!
April is National Donate Life Month (NDLM) and was instituted by Donate Life America and its members in 2003, and grew out of the federally proclaimed National Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation Awareness Week (NOTDAW). NDLM features an entire month of local, regional and national activities to help encourage Americans to become donors.
Additionally, this year there is a national initiative, Flags Across America, in which hospitals and other organizations will raise Donate Life flags to honor and celebrate organ, tissue and eye donors and recipients. Already media coverage is popping up on the campaign, like this story about Erlanger hospital in Tennessee and this story about Seymour hospital in Connecticut.
Encourage participation from hospitals and organizations in your communities to help spread awareness for donation during the month of April! Visit Donate Life for more information on the campaign.
In a story published by The Cypress Times today, LifeGift reminds everyone that the need for organ and tissue donors is still critical.
According to LifeGift, an organ and tissue recovery agency in Texas, there are 110,000 people in the United States waiting for a lifesaving transplant. On average,18 people die of organ failure due to the lack of available organs for transplant and approximately 138 people are added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list daily. There are nearly 11,000 people in Texas alone waiting for lifesaving transplants.
The Associated Press reported that this week Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has denoted March as National Kidney Month. White’s sister is a kidney recipient, and at the designation ceremony held at the Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, he spoke about the importance of organ and tissue donation.
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