Turia Pitt and her partner, Michael visit Gift of Life Donor Program with the Tissue Recovery Team.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A story of giving and gratitude this holiday season. The Gift of Life program here in the Philadelphia region helped save a young athlete in Australia.
Turia Pitt, 29 was hospitalized for months with burns covering most of her body in excruciating pain, but she survived — in part with a donation that came from an unidentified family here in our area.
There was a hug for some of the people from Gift of Life who helped organize a transplant that saved Pitt’s life.
“I ended up getting burned over 65 percent of my body,” Pitt said.
She’s from Australia, a mining engineer and elite athlete. During an ultra-marathon in 2011, Pitt was trapped and burned by a brush fire.
She needed extensive skin grafts but there were none available in her country.
“I was in critical condition with kidney and liver failure, thankfully they found skin in America,” Pitt explained.
Gift of Life coordinated donations from 16 Americans; one came from the Philadelphia area.
Find more on the story of Turia Pitt in the full article here.