next »

[Regina]

During the group meeting that my surgeon held to explain WLS and what to expect, etc, the topic of all the loose skin came up.  One woman there, who had already had the surgery long ago and lost all her weight, told of her experience with this. 

Burn centers and many hospitals take donations of skin for their burn patients.  They can only keep skin for a certain period of time then they must discard it.   That is what she did.  It is not the sculpting that a plastic surgeon offer, they will not do anything special but they are not going to leave you looking bad either.  She was very satisfied with her results. 

I have not looked into this personally yet since I am at the very beginning of my journey but it isn't something I am going to put off until the very end.  They do not take donations all the time so you have to be at the right place and the right time to do it.   

[Seht]

Please do post if you find out any more information.
I have seen this rumor over and over again, but I have never seen any concrete evidence or information about how to go about getting this accomplished.

You interaction with someone who has actually done this is one step closer than what most people post.
It's usually I heard it from someone who heard it from someone who might have had it done.

So your contact is encouraging that it might actually exist.

Thanks

Scott

[kiersti]

Found this info:

http://mtf.org/donor/living_skin.html

http://www.saintbarnabas.com/contact/skin.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052228382

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/26/finding_hope_in_donations_of_excess_skin/

Looks like this might be an urban myth..but shoot - keep looking!

[baka]

I thought I'd read somewhere that it's against the Law to profit from human body parts and getting free surgery/reduced fee's for donating skin would fall under that category.

I hope I'm wrong and maybe they changed the law?

Ian

[kiersti]

In everything I was reading about this in my search it came up again and again, profiting from the sale of body parts was illegal.  So... my best guess would be that reduced surgery fees may likely count as profiting from a skin donation. But in the end it is still a good thing to do.  (I tried and tried to find somewhere to donate my stem cells from the umbilical cord when my kids were born...but it was impossible to find takers for this donation too.  Why is it hard when we try to do good things!)

But I was thinking about something Rob brought up awhile back.  Being a model for marketing purposes.  And I am going to try this.  I am going to offer to be a model for promotional materials.  I work out quite a bit and see that under my extra tummy skin I have abs....like a six pack! (yes, bragging, sorry).  A before and after model who could provide quality photos of both the before and during and after might be something a surgeon would be interested in for their marketing materials.

Just a thought.  I am not really close to surgery, I have put it on hold as I see my skin still recovering from the loss and improving with weight training so I am going to give it about a year maybe and see where things settle, so to speak.  But I am always looking for ways to make this happen!

[baka]

Kiersti you should contact Dr Katzen as he does a lot of WLS events - he's a super nice guy too. I met him in Vegas and at the OH Costa Mesa conference the other week.

He maybe interested in something like that........?

Talk to GBB/Cari as he was her surgeon

http://www.bodybykatzen.com/

Ian

[Regina]

After Scott's reply I went looking too.    She definately stated that her doctor had set that up and went into great detail.  So, I'll ask the surgeon when I see him next if she elaborated on it to him.  Wish I could of gotten her information but it was not a situation where you could ask a stranger for that. 

From what I have seen, and I should of looked first before posting, she is confused about what happened.  I do believe she did what she said but from the information, I do not see how it could have been for a burn center.   Maybe she'll come to one of the support sessions the surgeon's staff gives and I'll corner her then. 

[MacMadame]

My understanding is that most of us have skin too damaged to be of use to anyone else and no one wants it for donation anyway.

But, heck, like everyone else, I'd love to be proved wrong!