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.

In 2008, Parker developed pain in his shoulder that he thought was the result of too much weight lifting or lugging a heavy backpack. Doctors performed an MRI and identified a tumor that they presumed to be a result of Parker’s previous osteomyelitis.  Dr. Ross Wilkins of The Denver Clinic for Extremities at Risk told Parker and his family that the tumor required immediate operation. Following the surgery, news got worse.

The tumor was not staph related, but actually osteosarcoma. The bone cancer was Stage 4 when discovered, and had taken hold of Parker’s shoulder joint and moved into both lungs. Within a matter of days, Parker had gone from relative recovery from his previous conditions and a normal teenaged life to intense chemotherapy treatments. “It was like whiplash,” he said.

So Parker’s struggle continued, and he could not have imagined that next the generosity of a tissue donor would lead to the ultimate survival of his arm and his active life.

In order to save his arm, Dr. Wilkins had to remove the cancer-infected shoulder and a large part of his humerus, which he then replaced with an allograft bone transplant from a deceased donor. AlloSource, one of the nation’s largest non-profit providers of skin, bone and soft tissue allografts, provided the limb-saving allograft. Parker’s shoulder was reconstructed with a metal alloy ball joint.

Parker’s recovery was daunting. The osteosarcoma also infected his lungs and the intense chemotherapy required to kill the cancer was the ultimate test of patience and physical strength. But thanks to a community of support from doctors and friends, and his own determination, Parker has today been cancer free for more than 18 months, and is currently a sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

“Parker had the wisdom and spirit to conquer this,” said his mother, Alice Casey.

With the knowledge that he’ll have to be hyper diligent about monitoring his health for the rest of his life, Parker is anxious to seize each day. He is inspired by Boulder’s majestic beauty and has taken up rock climbing, much to his mother’s chagrin. His interests for the future run the gamut from aeronautics to mechanics.

“I know I have endless possibilities now.”

The theme of this year’s 27^th 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. 

Several presentations and discussions were held on first person consent/donor designation and state-based donor registries.  Across the country OPOs are doing innovative things to increase public awareness of their state registries and increasing the numbers of people registered as organ, tissue and eye donors.  It was pointed out that when a donor family knows that their loved one wished to be a donor, it makes the donation process much easier.  Thus, OPOs are encouraging registered donors to share their wishes with their families.

One of the highlights of the meeting was the ceremony of the Crystal Heart Award, which is presented to a donor family dedicated to donation and transplantation.  This year the award was presented to Jill Stephenson.  Her son, Cpl. Ben Kopp, was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan.  Ben’s mother was approached about organ donation.  While facing the loss of her only child, she made the courageous decision to say yes.  Read more about this amazing story in the Washington Post here. “It helps my sorrow; it eases my pain. It really does,” Jill told the Post of knowing that Ben’s donation helped others. “I know that Ben wanted to help save lives . . . and it really prolongs Ben’s life and honors his memory so much and honors me in that we could save other lives.”

Thanks to all those who participated this year.  After attending, I am sure that the future of donation is bright. 

-          Heather Luders, Donor Field Services Representative

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.

National Donate Life Month

Reminder: April is National Donate Life Month. It is a great time to reflect on the miracles made possible here at AlloSource thanks to generous donors and their courageous families. Because of their decisions to register as donors, each day we are able to save and enhance the lives of patients in need: providing allograft skin to patients who are severely burned, generating fresh articular cartilage allografts to promote joint restoration for patients who have suffered disease or trauma, processing live cellular bone growth substitutes for patients with broken bones or spinal fusions, and so much more. 

Although still lesser understood than organ transplantation, approximately 1.5 million tissue transplants are performed each year. Celebrate this Donate Life Month by reading some of our touching stories of donor families and tissue recipients. Their chronicles truly bring to life the miraculous possibilities of tissue donation.

And please remember, if you’re not already a donor, register to become one. And pass the word on to your friends and families.

Sincerely,

Tom Cycyota

What do you think about the Chinese approach to regenerative medicine? What, if any, are the implications for the US?

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!

“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.”

Or, learn more about skin allografts used for the treatment of burns, including function, structure, donor recovery and clinical application.