OT..Donate loose skin to burn centers

Has anyone heard of donating our skin to burn centers in exchange of a TT? I was talking to a friend and she said her friend had gastric bypass and now she is having a TT for free because she is donating her excess skin to the burn center in her state. If we can find out more info on that I wouldn't mind giving up the 30 pounds of skin I have to someone that could use it more then me. I did a search on the net and I haven't found anything, but my next step is calling the burn center here and see if they can give me an answer, if not I am sure the Red Cross can help. If anyone knows of this please post and let us know more.. Thank You Terri

This is an urban myth. We don't want our stretched out skin and neither does a burn center. Our skin is too badly damaged for a burn center to use. Jane

Don't you find it strange to think that our live healthy...(other than stretched) skin...is not good enough to provide a temporary graft when they use CADAVER skin?? I mean...how healthy is THAT??? The skin does not have to take...it just has to provide a temporary covering....and they use a machine to flatten it and roll it out anyways! Just thinking about it.....no biggy... Sher'

Get the name and email address of the person who is getting the TT for free...and better yet...get the name of the place that is taking her skin!!! The line will be forming on the left! Sher'

Keep me posted on your fact findings I think it would be great to help others.

My husband used to work with someone who did this. It was at Albany Medical Center. This was probably at least 5 to 10 years ago though. Beth

I am amazed at how many people "know" of someone who did this, but can't give their name or where they did it. Everything i have ever found points to free plasitcs in exchange for skin donation is Urban Legend. By the way, cadaver skin is given freely and the recipeint as I understand pays the harvesting expenses. I know the skin I got rid of was hideous and NO ONE would have wanted it.

OK, I'd heard this was an "urban legend" (and I still believe that it largely is). But oddly enough, at the AMOS convention in DC in November, the AMOS coordinator there maintained that you *can* find Burn Units that will take skin donations from the M.O. However, as she elaborated upon her answer, two things became clear to me: (1) Such burn units (if they exist) will only take what they need from you, which may bear little or no resemblance to all that you want/need removed for yourself (the recipient being their focus, not the donor -- so for instance, if the donor needs skin from your right thigh, but not your left, that's *it* for skin removal gratis); and (2) They're not gonna keep a plastic surgeon on standby with the objecting of "fixing" the formerly M.O. up cosmetically (or more accurately, reconstructively), at least, not to the extent most are aiming for with this "donation" idea. Again, the focus being on the burn victim/donee, not donor. Dunno how that computes to anyone else, but I came away thinking, "Yep. Free WLS post-op plastics @ burn unit = urban legend."

Either way, I doubt donating your skin will get you a free quality tummy tuck. It seems like every few months or so, someone will come here asking about this and then everyone responds with "its an urban legend". Good grief willl someone please check into this and find out whats up. I still say you aint gonna get a 8,000-10,000 TT for free just for donating your skin, it just aint gonna happen.