Question:
Is there a group that pays for plastic surgery if the skin is donated for burn victim
Sounds a bit too good to be true to me, but thought I would see if anyone else has heard of this. Supposedly, it's based out of a bariatric clinic and your surgery will be paid for if you will donate all the excess skin harvested to go to treating burn victims. If it's true, who is doing this? Thanks gang! — Stacey R. (posted on May 19, 2005)
May 19, 2005
This is an urban legend. The skin of an obese person has lost its
elasticity and is not useful for the burn victim to use because it will
need to be put through another piece of equipment to stretch it before
applying to the burn victim's body.
— ChristineB
May 19, 2005
Actually, this isn't an urban legand anymore. John Hopkins in Baltimore is
in the process of a research study looking at using "live doner"
skin vs. cadaver skin for burn victims. Google "John Hopkins - skin
doner" - I'm sure you'll find more information. For now though, no
hospitals are actively accepting live donor skin.
Huggs,
Heidi
— heidiinPA
May 20, 2005
Could you post a link to that research study? I googled to no avail -
couldn't find anything.
TransWeb has a page regarding excess skin donation:
http://www.transweb.org/reference/articles/donation/excess_skin_donation.html
Also - even if they did harvest excess skin from living donors, I doubt if
the surgeons would want to use the often badly-damaged, stretched out skin
with stretch marks etc.
— Curly Girl
May 20, 2005
I heard that Shriner's in Boston takes donated skin and the surgery can be
done, at no cost to the patient, at Boston Children's Hospital. PLEASE
CALL THEM DIRECTLY to confirm this. However, a co-worker of mine has a
friend who was told this directly, so it didn't pass thru too many folks
in the rumor mill. I just haven't had time to call yet.
If someone DOES call, PLEASE post the answer on this board :-)
— Kym
May 21, 2005
Actually it isn't an urban legend! Live skin can be stretched. And there
are a few Doctors out there that are willing to do weightloss patients to
benefit two people. I think that there's one in California, but I can't
remember his name.
Love ya all,
Brittany
— Brittany H.
May 21, 2005
I would imagine there is a difference between (1) a group that may be
willing to take some of your skin, and will pay for the cost of removing
whatever they want and need, and (2) getting the particular skin *you* want
removed (maybe they don't want all you've got, or want it from where you
want it taken) and bringing in a plastic surgeon to achieve
muscle-tightening and pleasing cosmetic results of the type we want with
plastic surgery. I know people are now reporting this isn't an urban
legend, but I have yet to see a post that gets you across the Big Divide
that separates the concepts of "they'll take skin donations" from
"free/low-cost tummy tuck here" when we're talking about the
priority being aiding burn victims, for instance. It just seems like a big
leap to me, but it sure would be a good thing if people having plastics
could arrange to donate useable skin. (Seems like, if that were truly
useful or doable, it'd be happening already.)
— Suzy C.
May 21, 2005
I love these questions. They come up from time to time here. Its sort of
a legend, but based on facts. Here are a few: Human skin is NOT a
preferred coverage for other humans due to disease risk. All skin (unless
its from an identical twin) rejects, and must be removed at another
surgery. Fortunately, there is not a large number of people burned so
extensively to make this needed. There are synthetic alternatives too.
They can even grown your own skin to some degree in the lab. Some human
skin is kept in skin banks, but the preference is to have it from one
person (deceased) so they can get a lot of it. That way, they do not have
to do the testing, tracking, and registration necessary to prevent disease
transmission on a bunch of donors for a small amount of skin. You may be
able to let the student doctors at the medical school programs do the
surgery at a discount...maybe one of them told a patient they were going to
use their skin and that started up the legend again! I was an attending on
the Hermann Burn Unit (Texas' regional burn center for the southeast) for 2
years, and we never used human skin directly from donors. Hope this helps!
— DrL
May 21, 2005
Here is a link with the issue being quite nicely explained by Tom Taddonio,
Director of the University of Michigan Skin Bank
http://www.transweb.org/reference/articles/donation/excess_skin_donation.html
— DrL
May 23, 2005
For the person who 'heard' that Shriners in Boston does this...I found a
link on the Shriners site regarding skin donation and it SPECIFICALLY
states that they cannot and do not take donations from living donors:
""We receive a lot of calls about skin donation," said Phil
Walters, director of the skin bank at the Boston Shriners Hospital. He
added that the two most frequently asked questions are: "Is skin taken
from a living donor?" and "Can tissue surgically removed from a
patient by procedures such as those performed to reduce obesity be
donated?" The answer to both questions is no. "Skin is procured
from a deceased organ donor, just like any other donated organ," he
said. "
http://www.shrinershq.org/whatsnewarch/archives02/skin4-02.html
— Curly Girl
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