Source:  News Release

Denise Steffanus to Receive Prestigious Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award

Denise Steffanus will receive the prestigious Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award on June 16 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.

Steffanus earned the award, which honors professional journalists whose reporting has enhanced public understanding of how the humane and responsible use of animal models leads to medical and scientific discoveries, for her article titled "Quadriplegic donkey walks again" that appeared in the November 20, 2010, issue of Thoroughbred Times.

Steffanus has been a contributing editor of Thoroughbred Times for 15 years as well as a frequent contributor to many other equine industry publications.

The DeBakey Awards are named after the Foundation for Biomedical Research's late chairman Dr. Michael E. DeBakey. The winners receive an award, $1,000 cash prize, and a trip to Washington, DC, to attend the awards ceremony.

Steffanus's article showcased Eli the donkey's remarkable recovery from a traumatic spinal-cord injury after receiving experimental stem-cell treatment. The story drew universal praise for the surgeon, Douglas Herthel, D.V.M., for his courageous effort to save Eli's life and, in doing so, achieving an astounding breakthrough in the treatment of spinal-cord injuries in all species, including humans.

Herthel, founder and chief of staff at Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center in Los Olivos, California, wrote a letter of support for the article and said it highlighted a "significant breakthrough" in dealing with spinal-cord injuries.

"This important case would have gone unnoticed in the equine public, general public, and medical community had Denise not described it in her article in Thoroughbred Times," Herthel said. "Denise's ability to recant the history, diagnosis, and  circumstances surrounding the use of stem cells resulted in literally thousands of people in the medical professions and the equestrian world being exposed to a treatment that holds great promise for future treatments of this devastating type of injury."

In addition to appearing in the print version of Thoroughbred Times, the article appeared on the Thoroughbred Times website, and from there the story was picked up by more than 300 websites worldwide, piquing the interest of the scientific community as well as the general public.

Steffanus is in distinguished company as a DeBakey Award winner. Some of the more recent winners include Scott Pelley and Denise Schrier Cretta of CBS News' "60 Minutes," Jonathan Hamilton of National Public Radio, NBC News correspondent Robert Bazell, and Guatam Naik of The Wall Street Journal.