I ran into a friend of my mother's the other day, my mum had told her about my sleeve. I found out she has had it done too and lost 195 pounds, she is three yeas out now. She mentioned the saggy skin and said she had her tummy tuck at a local hospital for FREE because she donated her excess skin to the burn unit.

Apparently if you have a few pounds of excess skin and donate it (via tons of forms) you can get it for free!

Anyone heard of this before??

Interested to see about this as well.

I have never heard of that but I most certainly would love to know more about.... one of my biggest post surgical concerns is the skin....so I plan on researching this and finding out more

That is great information. I will definitely make note for when the time comes - I probably have enough stomach skin for the third world (joking).

Apparently, it's an urban legend and all skin graft skin comes from cadavers:

http://plasticsurgery101.blogspot.com/2007/09/urban-legend-debunked-can-you-donate.html

Well she had it done that way in my hometown. So it must not be an urban legend for everywhere. Cadaver is never the first choice for any procedure, fresher tissue or bone is always preferred.

But back to the tummy tuck, she had it done for free for our burn unit about 3 months ago.

I had a breast reduction 15 years ago, and I signed a release for my tissue to be used for that purpose...so it's possible.

I am sure the Shriner burn foundation has some strict rules, but a local hospital in a town of about 20,000 probably not too picky about where the skin comes from.

sorry cookies, but not all grafts come from cadavers. when i had my breast reduction i signed consents because they wanted to use the skin for grafting on an 8 year old boy who was badly burned. Of course I signed, what the heck did i need that extra skin for. . if it would help him, sure. . . now my surgery was definately NOT free. . . so that part may be a myth. . . let us know

So I talked with her today to clarify "free" and make sure I understood her correctly. She said the anesthesiologist's fee was free as was the hospital stay. She still paid her surgeon fee which was $2,000. She said she was originally quoted $8,000 for it. I don't know why she had it done at the hospital though, most are done at the Surgeon's own little office/OR room.

In the US?

Very interesting. Anymore updates?

Yes, in the US.

No more updates, she is healing nicely. I haven't really looked into this for myself. I have quite some time before I will be surgery ready!

In the US?

Well she had it done that way in my hometown. So it must not be an urban legend for everywhere. Cadaver is never the first choice for any procedure' date=' fresher tissue or bone is always preferred.

But back to the tummy tuck, she had it done for free for our burn unit about 3 months ago.[/quote']

Great to hear. I was just going by the Internet, which says the "free" tummy tuck for donating skin is a complete and utter urban legend.

What town did your friend live in and what doc did her procedure? I'd love to contact them.

It was a Dr. Cortina in Willits/Ukiah Ca

I recently heard some iffy news of him though, apparently he didn't go to Med School for cosmetics but has been doing some sort of seminar program to get his degree.

Someone said he had botched a tummy tuck recently. I think he has a website though.

Thanks! I'll check into sometime because I know I'm going to need a tummy tuck.