Florida Resident to Honor Mother’s Life During the Rose Bowl Parade

12/15/2009

• Erin Morton, APR
• Manager, Corp Communications and Family Services
• emorton@rtix.com
• (352) 281-7579

ALACHUA, Fla.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—A Gainesville, Fla. tissue donor son will honor his mother and others who gave the gift of life through organ and tissue donation as one of 24 people riding a special float in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.

Tim Heffernan, son of Linda Heffernan, will ride the Donate Life float in recognition of the thousands of people who donate tissue each year. Tim’s trip to Pasadena is sponsored by RTI Donor Services, which is one of more than 50 associations across the nation — including recovery organizations, industry partners, transplant centers and transplant recipient groups — supporting the float project. Tim is an employee of RTI Biologics, the Alachua-based organization that prepared his mother’s donated tissue, which resulted in the preparation of more than 20 implants, which have been or will be used in a variety of medical procedures to help others.

Linda Heffernan, a native of Melbourne, Fla., passed away suddenly at the age of 50 in February 1999 from a pulmonary embolism, five days after undergoing elective surgery. According to her family, she was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother and a friend. She raised three children – Tim and two older sisters, Karen and Kim.

As many donor families know, when a close family member passes away, emotions are high and it’s during this time that a family is challenged to make tough decisions. One of those decisions is that of organ and tissue donation. Tim testifies, “It’s not really something you want to think about, but it’s a decision that needs to be made. In regard to my mother, it was an easy decision for our family to make. Actually, it was a decision that had already been made by her long before she passed away.”

Tim said that he comes from a family that believes in organ and tissue donation. Donation had been a topic of discussion within his family on several occasions prior to his mother’s passing. During these discussions, Tim remembers his mother saying, “Let them have what they want; I don’t need it anymore.” So Linda’s family consented to donate her tissue with the hope that their decision would someday benefit other individuals.

The Donate Life Rose Parade float, one of 90 parade floats and units in this year’s “A Cut Above the Rest,” themed parade, will present the theme “New Life Rises” as it symbolizes the importance of donation. The float’s soaring phoenix, a symbol of life emerging from the ashes of death, displays a message of hope and inspiration, honoring those who make the gift of life an inspiring story of courage, compassion, and renewal.

Tim said he remembers his father showing him a letter he received from a company called Regeneration Technologies (now RTI Biologics), thanking the family for Linda’s donation. Tim said he never would have guessed that six years after her passing, he would come to work for the same company that received his mother’s donated tissue.

“In the end, my mother’s gift had a positive impact on other people’s lives due in large to the hard work of RTI employees. I personally have the privilege to work side-by-side with incredible people on a daily basis in all different departments, all of them working toward a common goal – to improve the quality of life for people, people they don’t even know,” Tim said. “I spoke to my family about what it is we do at RTI. I explained to them the different ways donated tissue is used to help others and how RTI takes great care to ensure that each donor’s tissue reaches as many individuals as possible.”

The 121st Rose Parade, “A Cut Above the Rest,” will take place at 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Friday, Jan. 1, 2010. For more information on the “New Life Rises” float, visit the official Web site at www.donatelifefloat.org.

Today, more than 100,000 children and adults await life-saving organ transplants in the United States. More than 3,000 of them are in Florida. Hundreds of thousands more are in need of a tissue transplant to greatly enhance the quality of their lives. You can join Florida’s donor registry at any time by visiting www.donatelifeflorida.org and designate your wishes.

Donor Services is a not-for-profit tissue recovery network dedicated to serving donor families and the donation community in perpetuating the circle of life. In addition to offering families the option of tissue donation, RTI Donor Services supports their wishes as a responsible steward of human donated tissue gifts, and provides family services, as well as community information and awareness. RTI Donor Services is accredited in the United States by the American Association of Tissue Banks. For more information on RTI Donor Services, visit www.rtidonorservices.org.

RTI Donor Services is affiliated with RTI Biologics, a leading provider of sterile biological implants for surgeries around the world. RTI prepares human donated tissue and bovine tissue for transplantation through extensive testing and screening, precision shaping and proprietary, validated sterilization processes.

These allograft and xenograft implants are used in spinal, sports medicine, orthopedic, dental and other specialty surgeries.

For more information on RTI Biologics, visit www.rtibiologics.com.

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