A Dream Come True
“Now, thanks to someone who donated tissue, I have a chance to show everyone what I’ve got. It’s really a dream come true.”
Nineteen-year-old Angelo Parato takes a break from classes at Drake University in Des Moines, IA to talk about his dream. “I hope to be on this field next fall playing football.” Parato, a 6’2”, 215 lb. freshman, is eager to join the college football team after being sidelined with a potentially debilitating condition called osteochondritis dissecans. The condition, in which bone and cartilage in a joint separate because of a loss of blood supply, began affecting Parato’s athletic dreams in middle school. “I had x-rays taken of my knee and the joint looked like it was torn to pieces,” he says. “I remember thinking ‘what’s wrong with me?’ I wanted to play and I was told I couldn’t.” Last December, after battling the condition for years and undergoing surgeries, Parato received a bone and cartilage transplant. He had full range of motion in his knee within weeks and now is in the midst of strength training and conditioning to get ready for fall tryouts. “I’ve been playing in pain almost my entire life,” he says. “Now, thanks to someone who donated tissue, I have a chance to show everyone what I’ve got. It’s really a dream come true.”
