“When I got word from my doctor that my senior year of lacrosse was over, I was devastated,” said Cameron McDonald.

During a game, Cameron injured his ankle.  Thinking it was a minor injury, he continued playing.  Despite initially thinking it was just a sprain, he woke up the next morning to an ankle swollen to the size of a basketball.   

“We went to the emergency room wondering if my ankle was broken or shattered,” said McDonald.  The news was grim. Cameron’s ankle was completely shattered.  In his mind, his lacrosse playing days were over. 

His doctor however, had a different idea. He knew about a procedure that been successfully performed on over 40 adults. 

“They said the procedure involved  using cartilage from a child donor and injecting into ankle,” said McDonald.  Though no one as young as Cameron had ever had the procedure, he and his doctors decided it was his best option.  The procedure was a success.

“I was out of the hospital in about four hours and I only had to stay on pain medicine for about three or four days,” said McDonald.

After just two weeks of recovery, Cameron was back working with his trainer on his upper body strength and flexibility while his ankle was recovering.  By the second month, he was in a walking boot going to all of his classes.

“This procedure clearly allowed me the opportunity to continue playing the sport I love, lacrosse,” said McDonald. “My doctor said that without this new technology I was unlikely to ever have the mobility necessary to play lacrosse at the college level.  If I had gotten pins and screws installed instead of this procedure I am sure I would not be on my school’s team today.”

When first told about the procedure, Cameron felt uneasy. He realized that while he was recovering, a family would be grieving.

“I understood that a family lost a very young child so I could get healthy again,” McDonald said. “But at the same time, they were brave enough to honor their family member by donating their organs and tissue.  The more I thought about the surgery and the gift I was getting, the more I realized the best way to honor my donor was to live my life to its fullest.”

Cameron not only tells his friends and family to become donors, he also thinks of his donor family while he plays the sport he so loves.

“There are many times when I am tired in practice or a game when I have a quick thought to dig a bit deeper as a small measure of thanks for all that I have been given,” McDonald said.  “I feel that I am tremendously fortunate to have been given such a gift.”

In the past, Allograft Possibilities has honored donors by telling their stories.  National Donor Day is a great time to look back, read and remember Nick, Cameron and Ryan who chose to show love through donation.  Thanks to that love, countless people can spend this Valentine’s Day with their loved ones, appreciating the gift of an enhanced or saved life.

While testing the brakes on an all-terrain vehicle as part of his occupation, Person crashed, severing the four main tendons and ligaments in his shoulder.

“I was told a break would have been easier to fix,” said Person. “After a month of immobilized healing, it became clear that a total reconstruction would be needed to restore the arm and shoulder function.”

What Person didn’t know was that somewhere, someone who had lost a loved one had donated tissue, making the reconstruction of his shoulder

“I was at home recovering when a postcard arrived in the mail,” said Person.  “Up to this point, the only information I had about the surgery was that it took twice as long as expected.”

The postcard he received told Person that someone donated the tissue that was used to repair his shoulder and “What a gift,” said Person. “I will remember this gift each time I throw a ball, ride a bike or just try to keep up with my active family.”

After less than six months, Person’s rebuilt shoulder is nearly 100 percent back to normal.

“My only limitation is that my fastball is not as fast as it used to be,” said Person.  He can, however, throw a ball with his sons again.

“This may not be a surprise, but I was a full anatomical donor,” said Person. “If something were to happen to me, I plan to pass this gift on to others.”

The organization also recovered more bone and joint restoration tissue grafts, allowing roughly 48,000 people to regain mobility and active lives after disease or trauma last year.

Donor Alliance has also launched Donate Life Colorado and Donate Life Wyoming Facebook pages, where it will bust myths surrounding donation, and answer questions from the public.

Ryan never met a stranger and his friends said his constant smile was their favorite part about him.  They could be having a down day, but after being with Ryan they felt good.  He would introduce his mother to his friends this way:  “This is my Mom.  She’s cool!”  He was fun, funny and never used dark humor to run someone else down. He was comfortable in his skin, confident and okay with himself and who he was.

Ryan Joseph Landers was born in Louisville, KY, March 24, 1988.  He was the middle child, younger brother to Chris and older brother to Kelly.  He was 6 when the family moved to Cape Girardeau, MO.  Three years later the family settled in Springfield, IL.  It wound up being the place Ryan called home for the longest period in his life, although Louisville was always home and he’s buried there in Resthaven Cemetery about a mile from where the family lived the first six years of his life.

Ryan excelled in art and later his teacher told him when he was graduating from high school that he should consider a degree in art education.  He was great with kids and one of his part-time jobs was a monitor in the after-school program at a private church school.

His passions began with skateboarding, followed by guitar lessons and several guitars and amplifiers, and ultimately cars.  At various times Ryan owned up to 7 cars.  He would make modifications on them regarding air flow and exhaust systems.  He repainted the interior trim on his ’98 Hyundai Tiburon, which still sits in the family driveway.  His project car was “Delores”, an ’89 Honda Civic, and it was his primary commuter car to work and school.  His pride and joy was the 2000 Honda Civic SI, with the V-Tech engine, which he and his mother bought in December, 2006, and he had his accident in 4 months later.

It is not known what caused Ryan’s car to veer into the oncoming traffic.  There was no excessive speed, bad weather, use of cell phone, smoking, drugs or alcohol.  Witnesses said he simply drifted over the line.  He was on his way to work a little past 4:30pm on Good Friday, April 6, 2007.  He had dropped off his sister and girlfriend within the hour before the crash.   The two-car, head-on collision totaled both vehicles and broke the heel of the oncoming driver.  Traffic was tied up on the two-lane road for hours.  The first responders struggled for 45 minutes to remove the roof of Ryan’s car and extricate him from the wreckage.  One fireman was able to climb inside the mangled car to administer oxygen and speak to Ryan to calm him down, although he was never fully conscious after the accident.

There were other injuries, but Ryan was declared brain dead within 24 hours.  Gift of Hope was on the scene in the hospital and was available to discuss organ and tissue donation when Ryan’s family was ready.  The recovery process took place on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2007.  The idea of being a donor was Ryan’s idea.  He had spoken with his mother about it, coincidentally, not long before his accident.  When she protested about the desecration of her baby’s body, he just said:  “Mom, what sense does it make not to?”

Of course, there is no desecration of the donor’s body.  Ryan’s gifts of organ and tissue presently have helped 61 recipients in at least 12 states and Korea.  Five more items await distribution in AlloSource tissue banking facilities in Denver and San Diego.  While one might say that Ryan’s work is finally done, it isn’t.  Ryan’s kind of legacy will go on and on for generations in the people’s lives that he saved or improved.  They will go on to have families and/or to remain alive and connected with their families.  The ages of Ryan’s recipients range from 4 months to 83 years of age.  They live in Illinois, California, Utah, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Wisconsin, Missouri and New Jersey, as well as Korea.

“Enjoy every sandwich” was Ryan’s credo.  “Giving Without Reward” was the sermon title of a pastor in Springfield, IL, on the morning of November 13, the National Donor Sabbath.  Becoming a donor is the most selfless thing an individual can do, and it can have the most significance of anything an individual will ever do.  Who knows how many lives are touched by a single recipient’s life-saving or life-enhancing transplanted organ or tissue?  It fans way beyond the individual donor or recipient.  Then, multiply that times the total number of recipients, and the numbers could be staggering.

Further, Ryan has a scholarship in his name at Lincoln Land Community College, where he was a second-semester freshman in the automotive tech program when he died.  To date, there have been four winners of the Ryan J. Landers Memorial Scholarship in Automotive Technology.  His primary instructor had the idea and contributes funds to it as does Ryan’s family.

Ryan’s family could not imagine anything helping them more to get through their loss and grief than knowing of the powerful gifts of life that Ryan gave to so many others.  Families try to teach their children how to live, but Ryan taught his family how to die.

The fall resulted in a broken tibia, or shin bone. Doctors recommended that she have surgery to repair the bone, as it was not likely to heal well enough on its own. The surgery involved implanting a steel plate against her bone for structural support. Additionally, after finding osteoporosis in the bone during surgery, the doctor chose to also transplant bone grafts from a deceased human donor into Jane’s injured bone to allow it to strengthen over time.

An unfamiliar concept to Jane, she questioned her doctor about the bone tissue transplant.

“I asked the doctor if compatibility studies had been done,” Jane said. “He explained that contrary to organ transplants, it was not necessary.”

The surgery was successful and next Jane began the slow healing process, which involved a walker, physical therapy and new medication to treat her osteoporosis. She could not put weight on the leg for eight weeks while it healed. However, she knew the process could have taken even longer had she not received the bone graft transplant, and she could have encountered other complications.

To Jane’s delight, following her transplant and healing period she has experienced a full recovery and is back to enjoying myriad outdoor activities in Colorado. When she was approached to write a thank-you letter to the family of the donor that provided her bone graft, she jumped at the opportunity.

“It brought tears to my eyes. It was so sweet and poignant to be able to express my appreciation for what their loved one had done and how it improved my life,” said Jane. “My husband has had a corneal transplant, which was very successful.  There was no opportunity at that time to express our thanks, which is why the letter I wrote meant so much to me.”

Jane continues that if she could, she would tell her donor: “my heartfelt thanks. I would feel privileged to donate tissue myself, especially considering the fine example I have benefitted from.”

Each year, life-saving and life-enhancing tissue is provided by approximately 30,000 tissue donors. Just one tissue donor can enhance the lives of more than 50 people.

Approximately 1.5 million allografts are transplanted each year for a variety of life-saving and life-enhancing surgeries that many are not aware of:

• bone grafts for patients with bones degenerated by cancer
• cornea transplants to help restore sight
• heart valves to replace damaged heart tissues
• skin grafts to save the lives of burn victims
• tendon, meniscus and soft tissue replacements to help people lead more active lives.

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.