On the other hand, the company says AlloDerm customers have never been forced to wait. In fact, they say they have increased donor numbers by enlisting and training more tissue banks in skin recovery. They also say the products made from that skin have a wide range of benefits. If I crash my Harley, and I know I can help 200 people with my skin, that's a pretty good deal in my book. Harper said the majority of procedures using AlloDerm are reconstructive rather than cosmetic.
Hospitals say burn victims' needs are more pressing.
In New York City, for example, burn center staff say they can't find enough skin. To the north, Albany's Center for Donation and Transplant sends 250 square feet annually across the state border to the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, which, in turn, sends it to Collagenesis. Both LifeCell and the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation emphasized that they either work with banks like McTague's that weren't harvesting skin before or they only take skin that hospitals don't need. The Register found that wasn't always the case. Life Alaska in Anchorage, for example, used to send its skin to the Intermountain Tissue Center in Salt Lake City, which prepares skin for burn centers.