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,” Person said. “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,” Person said.  “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,” Person said. “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,” Person said.  He can, however, throw a ball with his sons again.

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

While awaiting a lung transplant, 20-year-old Helene Campbell decided to take action and increase donor awareness. Campbell and friends focused on a Twitter campaign with a specific goal in mind: getting Justin Bieber to take notice and spread the word to his 16-million followers.

Well they got Justin’s attention, and with his support via Twitter, a Canadian organ registry received more than 500 new registrants within just a few days. Check out the full story here.

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.

Connie says “If one life can breathe easier because of me, then I’ve gained my own measure of success. If I could speak to my donor I would say: thank you for helping to make people at a small county fair smile. You’re a success.”

“An argument erupted behind me,” Connie said. “I stood up to move to the other side of the table but my snow boot caught on the rung of the chair just as one man pushed another into me, knocking me over.”  Shortly thereafter, as Connie was still lying on the floor, a large man fell onto her legs. Connie sustained serious injuries: her left leg was broken and her right ACL was blown out.

Aside from the pain and day-to-day struggles that dealing with two injured legs presented, Connie’s injuries also meant she could not adequately do her job, which she had a great passion for. After serving as Montana’s property tax supervisor for 30 years, Connie was at the time working as the local county fair manager. Although the work was taxing (including everything from negotiating entertainment contracts to cleaning horse stalls), she absolutely loved it.

“Seeing smiling faces at a summertime county fair is one of the warmest feelings a heart can experience,” Connie said.

As a full year passed after the injury, Connie’s broken leg was casted and healed. She wore a brace on her right knee with the injured ACL, and knew her options for that leg were either to live with the injury in a brace for the rest of her life, or try an ACL transplant, using donated tissue from a deceased human donor. Eager to resume an active lifestyle and work for the county fair, Connie opted for the transplant.

The surgery didn’t require any large incisions, only 4 small holes where instruments expanded the skin around Connie’s knee for viewing and working. Doctors performed meniscus reconstruction and then anchored the donated tendon diagonally from her tibia to femur.

Following the surgery Connie was excited to get her leg back into working order. However, she was tired of the frequent doctor visits from the past year, and wasn’t pleased with the prospect of having to return again for physical therapy. Instead, she set up her own therapy routine at home.

“After a few harrowing days in a recliner I got on an exercise bike. I began slowly pedaling in front of the TV, an hour each morning and night. I had quite a setup. Morning Sudoku and coffee while pedaling to the Today Show, herbal tea and a sitcom at night,” she said. And the training worked; Connie’s doctors were very pleased with her gradual improvement in range of motion.

By Spring of 2010, after a year of working from home, Connie was elated to be able to get back to the fairgrounds and the work she loves.

“It’s now been one and a half years since my transplant.  I still get a little stiff if I don’t stay active, but I recently finished my second summertime county fair since surgery and reports from the public are that this was the best one in years,” she said.

Connie reflects on the gift of life that allowed her to return to work with earnestness and appreciation.

“I believe the body is the human’s earthly vessel.  Our deceased loved ones are hopefully in a wonderful place; their tissue is no longer needed by them.  I honor whoever is selfless enough to understand that,” Connie said. “We offer an unused blanket to a shivering homeless man, food to a starving child, spare change to a simple benefit drive or money in the collection plate at church.  We give.  It’s an odd feeling for me to be a recipient of any such gift because I’ve always been more of a giver, but I feel humbled in knowing someone gave tissue to me when I was in need.”

Connie is a registered organ, tissue and bone marrow donor. “As the old saying goes, if one life can breathe easier because of me, then I’ve gained my own measure of success. If I could speak to my donor I would say: thank you for helping to make people at a small county fair smile.  You’re a success.”

Read more about this exciting new science from the Eindhoven University of Technology in this Gizmag article.

A Columbus Crew rookie said on Friday that a tissue donation saved his dream of playing soccer in the professional league.

Several years ago Bernardo Anor suffered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, 10TV’s Tracy Townsend reported on Friday.

“I received the ball I was going to turn with the ball when a guy came and tackled me from behind and he basically hit my knee,” Anor said.

Anor’s doctors said that he would be out of the game for nearly a year. His treatment options included a tissue transplant or a series of surgeries to replace the torn ligament with one from his right leg, followed by a lengthy recovery and rehab.

Anor chose the transplant. He said he was grateful for such a gift.

“Since I got that from somebody I’m willing to give it for some other people too that’s why I’m a registered donor,” Anor said.

Watch the video here.