Allograft Possibilities

Julie Prangl has experienced the heartbreak, loss, hope and awe that come from being on both sides of organ and tissue donation. Her 17-year-old son became an organ and tissue donor after losing his life in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, Julie’s daughter became the recipient of an ankle transplant that relieved her from a lifelong debilitating condition.

“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)

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AlloSource is the world’s largest processor of fresh cartilage, skin allografts and live cellular bone growth substitutes, including adult stem cell grafts. Most of the public is not aware that adult stem cells can be recovered and transplanted without controversy from adult human organ and tissue donors.

AlloStem Stem Cell Bone Growth Substitute, an adult human stem cell bone graft, is recovered from adult human adipose tissue and is processed and cryopreserved by AlloSource into a stem cell bone graft used by surgeons to promote bone growth and healing. Adipose tissue is a rich source of a wide variety of stem cells, and some laboratory studies indicate it is the human body’s primary source of stem cells. Read 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.

At AlloSource we are lucky to be inspired by the donor families and patients whose lives we touch and whose stories provide us with the ultimate meaning to our work. We are also blessed to live and work in areas of the country that provide inspiring vistas and landscapes. Many of us spend our personal time and even some of our window-gazing at work being inspired by these panoramas. We asked employees to capture images of the scenes that inspire them, and we received hundreds of photos. We hope these images inspire you, too.

Dillon Reservoir in Dillon, CO

Photo by: Sharon Tung, Purchasing Manager

A behind-the-scenes look at a tissue processing facility

The Times They are a Changin’
This rings true for me on a daily basis.  I use all kinds of alternative communication methods to stay in touch with friends and colleagues around the country instead of using a landline phone.  I can no longer keep up with remembering the names of all the children born to AlloSource employees in a given year.  And after raising three boys, my wife Cyndy and I are actually on the final countdown to being empty nesters.  Life is all about change!

Change is constant, and for those of us in the tissue donation and processing industry, the last 18 months have meant a wide scale re-tooling of how we do business. For the first time in my nine years at AlloSource, we have seen enough of a significant increase in available tissue donors that our supply actually outweighs the demand. This increase in donors is a strong testament to the work of our organ recovery agencies that help donor families in their time of need and encourage others to pass on their gifts. Read more

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.

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

Twitter! Helium! Facebook! Blogosphere! LinkedIn!

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.

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