SAN ANTONIO -- Ninety percent of Americans say they support organ and tissue donation. Yet only a third of those people take steps to become a donor. It’s a choice that can change lives.
You hear a lot about blood donation and organ donation. But you might not know about tissue donation. It’s a way to help more than 100 other people after you’re gone.
Magda Shelton, 55, is driving again, which is a minor miracle after a 2008 accident on 1604 that almost cost her her life. She broke her neck and spent three months in a halo device before surgeons decided she needed an operation.
Doctors had to literally rebuild the base of her skull, reconstructing the atlas bone that holds her head. Donated tissue made that possible.
“I’m alive,” Shelton said. “I’m walking. I’m talking to you. I’m sitting here. I have my head over my shoulders.”
At Allograft Resources, part of the School of Medicine at the U.T. Health Science Center, teams go to hospitals and recover tissue from people who have died a cardiac death. They are people who have told their loved ones they’re willing to donate.
Donated bones are sterilized and cut into specific shapes. They serve as scaffolding for many different surgeries.
The patient’s own cells and vessels grow into the spongy bone, accepting the donated tissue as part of the body. Nothing manmade works as well.
“Your body adapts it as its own,” explained Russ Meurer, AAS, CTBS, the director of recovery operations for Allograft Resources. “Your body will never adapt to plastic or steel as its own.”
Shelton’s surgery changed her life. She wants more people to consider signing up as a donor.
“If you donate, every little thing you donate, organs, skin, bone, whatever, it’s living," she said. "So you’re leaving behind something.”
Donors are still able to have an open casket funeral and there is no cost to the donor family.
"So I think it makes them feel good that they are helping somebody and trying to bring something positive out of the situation they they’re having to deal with,” Meurer stated.
It’s easy to let the world know you’re willing to be a tissue donor. Click on one of the related links above for more information.
You hear a lot about blood donation and organ donation. But you might not know about tissue donation. It’s a way to help more than 100 other people after you’re gone.
Magda Shelton, 55, is driving again, which is a minor miracle after a 2008 accident on 1604 that almost cost her her life. She broke her neck and spent three months in a halo device before surgeons decided she needed an operation.
Doctors had to literally rebuild the base of her skull, reconstructing the atlas bone that holds her head. Donated tissue made that possible.
“I’m alive,” Shelton said. “I’m walking. I’m talking to you. I’m sitting here. I have my head over my shoulders.”
At Allograft Resources, part of the School of Medicine at the U.T. Health Science Center, teams go to hospitals and recover tissue from people who have died a cardiac death. They are people who have told their loved ones they’re willing to donate.
Donated bones are sterilized and cut into specific shapes. They serve as scaffolding for many different surgeries.
The patient’s own cells and vessels grow into the spongy bone, accepting the donated tissue as part of the body. Nothing manmade works as well.
“Your body adapts it as its own,” explained Russ Meurer, AAS, CTBS, the director of recovery operations for Allograft Resources. “Your body will never adapt to plastic or steel as its own.”
Shelton’s surgery changed her life. She wants more people to consider signing up as a donor.
“If you donate, every little thing you donate, organs, skin, bone, whatever, it’s living," she said. "So you’re leaving behind something.”
Donors are still able to have an open casket funeral and there is no cost to the donor family.
"So I think it makes them feel good that they are helping somebody and trying to bring something positive out of the situation they they’re having to deal with,” Meurer stated.
It’s easy to let the world know you’re willing to be a tissue donor. Click on one of the related links above for more information.
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