Bone marrow, eyes, tissue are vital donations to make, too

BY CHARLES DAVIS | Greenbay Press Gazette

Kim Stege never guessed a stranger would help her ski again.

When she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in 2008, Stege of Madison received a tissue transplant from a man who died from a brain aneurism. That, Stege said, led to a bond with the man's wife and a deeper connection with the human spirit.

"It's not a kidney, or a heart or a liver, but it's unbelievable to me that I have someone's tissue in my body — just because of someone saying 'I want to donate,'" she said.

Though thousands of people wait each year for organ transplants, there is still a need for bone marrow, tissue — skin, bones, heart valves or blood vessels — and even eyes, said Peggy Irwin of the New Jersey-based Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation.

Nationally, at least 750,000 people receive tissue transplants each year, Irwin said.

The nonprofit has a recovery center in Madison, and Irwin said many people don't realize they could be eligible to donate.

"There is more potential for people to be tissue and eye donors (than organ donors). You don't have to be declared brain dead in order to be a tissue donor," she said.

Tissues can be recovered up to 24 hours after a person dies. Tissue donations are federally regulated, but, unlike organ donations, there is no national wait list, and most referrals come from hospitals, Irwin said.

Bone marrow, known as the spongy material in bones, is needed for people battling blood diseases, such as leukemia, said Teri Mitchell, bone marrow transplant manager of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison.

Alison Raab, 25, of Green Bay celebrated her "golden birthday" on June 16: 16 years to the day that she received a bone marrow transplant in Milwaukee, after being diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

"I look at it as the day when I became cancer-free," said Raab, now a surgical nurse at Aurora BayCare Medical Center. "I felt people helped me out so much when I was sick, I feel the least I can do is help out, give back and care for them."

The Green Bay Press-Gazette is exploring organ donation through the people who do it and the people it saves. For information about becoming an organ and tissue donor, go to www.yesiwill wisconsin.com.