Recipients’ Stories

For every donor’s gift, as many as 50 lives may be affected. MTF collects the stories of those who benefit from the courage of donor families, and the reassuring messages of shared life that they offer. The stories on this page represent just a few of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been changed as the result of tissue donation.

Jacob’s belated holiday gift will last a lifetime.

A few months after the Christmas that Jacob Seyle was 11, he got an unexpected and most precious gift: his right arm. Jacob received a tissue transplant that enabled him to keep his right arm rather than have it amputated.

Jacob was fortunate to be a candidate for this procedure, unlike the young boy he met whose cancer in his lower leg resulted in amputation. Jacob’s mother Deborah Seyle knows the procedure has saved her and her son from the added pain and grief of amputating his right arm. "Even though I trained in the sciences as a biologist, I was unfamiliar with the benefits of tissue donation or transplantation," said Deborah. "We are now big proponents of organ and tissue donation. Jacob thinks it’s very special that he got a donated gift."

"I know I will learn a lot from this and someday will be able to help other people, especially kids, who have to deal with hard things," said Jacob. "I’ve already been able to help a few and it felt great."

Twenty-nine days before he was to retire, police officer Mike Blood was shot repeatedly at close range by a bank robber. One bullet hit him in the right hip, passing through his body and coming out by the left hip. Another shattered six inches of bone in his right leg and blew away 50 percent of his calf muscle. He had a hole in his back big enough to put a hand in.

Mike was in the hospital for 10 months, had 19 operations and was given 120 units of blood. Among other things, the doctors inserted a titanium rod in his right leg and put bone filler in the six-inch hole in Mike’s own bone. The filler came from someone who had died and whose family donated tissue to help people in need whom they’d never met, like Mike. Instead of being disabled for life, Mike can now walk well enough to play 36 holes of golf and catch hundred pound halibut.

"The transplant means a lot to me. I’m able to fish, play golf and enjoy a better quality of life. I’m moved that someone would make that sacrifice for me. When you become a tissue donor, you never know who you are going to help. Also, you never know if you’ll ever need tissue one day," said Mike.

When Paula Van Riper chose to be an organ and tissue donor several years ago, the thought never crossed her mind that some day she might need a tissue transplant.

In 1999, Paula was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma and required surgery. Because of a fairly large tumor in her femur, her hip was replaced with a titanium one. A small piece of donated bone was also implanted in her right leg so that it would be the same length as her left leg.

Paula, Dean of Academic Services for Livingston College, a liberal arts college within Rutgers University, has resumed a full and active life that includes biking and working out at the gym. "My tissue transplant was instrumental in my healing and my ability to function normally. Within days I was walking and within months back on my bike."

Pressing for Donation: Rich’s Story

Recipient Rich Pietroski at the bench press lifting 240 lbs.

On his 49th birthday, Rich Pietroski bench pressed 240 pounds 20 times. Yet this athletic accomplishment would not have been possible without the gift of donated human tissue used to repair Rich’s shoulder.

"I want others to ask me all about my transplant," said Rich, "because some day they may need a transplant, too."

Growing up, Rich’s strength had always been in athletics. He was the kind of guy who hit the game-winning home run and scored the winning touchdown. There was very little athletically that Rich hadn’t tried or accomplished.

Gradually, however, he began to sustain shoulder pain that eventually required surgery. Because of his work with the Organ Procurement Organization, Gift of Life Michigan, Rich already knew about the health-restorative benefits of tissue transplantation and he pressed his doctor to choose this surgical option.

Now fully recovered, Rich knows how fortunate he is to play a simple game of catch with his 15 year old son or to donate time to Habitat for Humanity and use his right shoulder to its full capacity helping to build houses. He also knows that the need for transplantable tissue and organs remains unmet, and in some cases, critically so. That’s why he continues to press on as an advocate for donation.

On June 24, 2006, when he was 16, Richard Pawling and his sister were riding their All Terrain Vehicles (ATV). Suddenly, they collided. “I don’t even remember what happened. All I know is that somehow we crashed, and my gas tank exploded,” said Richard.

Although his sister was also burned, she did not need skin grafts. Richard was burned over approximately 65% of his body with third degree burns. He was in the Kansas University Medical Center Burn Unit for 95 days, and required 26 different surgeries. He also required skin grafts to heal. His doctors at the KU Med Center explained the importance of his skin grafts. “Very early in my healing process I received donated skin. My doctor told me what it was and where it came from. I’m very grateful for it.”

Today, Richard is a high school senior, and well on his way to recovery. “I’ve learned from this ordeal. Donation is a very good thing, and tissue is very much needed for patients like me.”