Live organ transport
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Originally Posted by Radgirl
Still is. Reminds me of a transplant surgeon many years ago who used to get his wife to pick up a kidney at the butchers on Saturdays with the Sunday roast. Kept it in his car in a UK transplant box so when stopped for speeding or other infringements he could wave the box at the policeman and shout 'emergency...transplant'. He told me it always worked as no policeman could tell the difference between a human and a pig's kidney. Wonder they didn't ask why no ice......
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We get called for them from time to time here, there can be a whole lot of waiting around and fatigue issues, and when you commit to go that commitment is that you will get in, so weather minima are pretty important. Longest one I did was a trip from Plymouth to Oxford. Arrived Plymouth at 20:00 and left the next morning at 10:00. Sometimes it can take quite a while to get all the teams together.
The one that really sticks in my mind was a helicopter transfer from Manchester to a hospital near London, I was at the Manchester site waiting when Lady Dementia rang and told me her brother, who had been on the waiting list for a kidney for years had been called in to receive a new kidney, I delivered two to that hospital that night one of which went to him. Its' still going 16 years later, he has brought up his family, lived a full and active life and raised a huge amount of money for research. Every day a lot of thanks are given for the genorosity of the donor's family, their courage at such a time and the team who had to make that first, dreadful approach.
Whenever I'm on a transplant task my mind and heart go to the donor family, their awful loss can mean so much good can be done for so many others, I just don't know how you see past the immediate misery to the good that will be done.
SND
The one that really sticks in my mind was a helicopter transfer from Manchester to a hospital near London, I was at the Manchester site waiting when Lady Dementia rang and told me her brother, who had been on the waiting list for a kidney for years had been called in to receive a new kidney, I delivered two to that hospital that night one of which went to him. Its' still going 16 years later, he has brought up his family, lived a full and active life and raised a huge amount of money for research. Every day a lot of thanks are given for the genorosity of the donor's family, their courage at such a time and the team who had to make that first, dreadful approach.
Whenever I'm on a transplant task my mind and heart go to the donor family, their awful loss can mean so much good can be done for so many others, I just don't know how you see past the immediate misery to the good that will be done.
SND
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I wonder what proportion of people who choose not to donate their relatives' organs later come to regret it? Not something I had ever considered before.
There has been research on this, in the dim mists of time. The answer is very few. It is very complex....
But back to OP. There are no rules or regulations for organs, blood or transplant teams. The words dont appear in the ANO AFAIK. As UK Transplant became richer it decided it wanted more engines / bells / whistles and as the customer they could make any demand they wanted. not an aviation decision.
But back to OP. There are no rules or regulations for organs, blood or transplant teams. The words dont appear in the ANO AFAIK. As UK Transplant became richer it decided it wanted more engines / bells / whistles and as the customer they could make any demand they wanted. not an aviation decision.
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Originally Posted by Sam Rutherford
Now that is one of the most unexpected questions I've ever seen here!
I hope you get some answers, in the meantime, what are the rules in India?
I hope you get some answers, in the meantime, what are the rules in India?
Originally Posted by chevvron
Don't know if it's the same in India, but if you're doing it privately in the UK based on no revenue earning of any sort, the only rules would be laid down by the senders and receivers of the organs who would need to ensure that the organs get to the recipient safely and in the shortest time as some organs have a time limit on their use.
Factors to take into consideration would be things like is the destination going to be open when you arrive and is it an airport which accepts your type of aircraft; does the pilot have the necessary qualification to make an instrument approach if necessary.
A company at Fairoaks does this type of operation commercially and uses a Kingair, often operating between midnight and 6am, but there are other companies in the UK which use single engined aircraft.
Factors to take into consideration would be things like is the destination going to be open when you arrive and is it an airport which accepts your type of aircraft; does the pilot have the necessary qualification to make an instrument approach if necessary.
A company at Fairoaks does this type of operation commercially and uses a Kingair, often operating between midnight and 6am, but there are other companies in the UK which use single engined aircraft.
The other factors have been taken into consideration ( airport being open, pilot rated, etc)
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Originally Posted by abgd
It's a really interesting question. Obviously legal aspects will vary by location. In the UK we have volunteer motorcyclists who transport blood products - not sure if they're allowed to break the speed limit as a reward and I don't know any of the details about who owns the bikes and associated equipment - I suspect they're not privately owned as they have specific markings.
My question would be about the practicalities rather than the legalities. I have not got the reference any more, but I have seen a career fatality rate 1/8 for US medical pilots (I think this included both helimed - which didn't surprise me - and medical transfer - which did). It can be hard enough to say 'no' to flying in bad weather as a commercial pilot to start off with. When doing so is likely to lead to the death of a patient it becomes very hard indeed and I have read a number of accident reports where pilots weighed a fairly high risk of killing themselves against the near certainty of killing a patient, and lost.
Next comes the 'time to spare, go by air' issue that flying is often not particularly quick. If you have a slick system for getting the pilot and aircraft ready whilst the donor organ is being removed, and also for transporting the organ from the destination airport to the destination hospital, I can see that this might not be insurmountable. However in the UK one is often limited by the weather. Perhaps this is less of an issue in your region of India, but I suspect that one might get a much better dispatch rate by using professional pilots and more capable aircraft. The problem being that such services become more dangerous and less economically viable if the 'easy' trips are taken from them by amateurs. I realise that India is a developing nation, but from what I've heard from my colleagues medical wages and costs are going up to the extent that doctors are returning to India from the UK because they can make more money there. In such a climate, I feel it should be expected that pilots and medical transfer services should be paid a fair sum for their efforts.
Fast forward 15 years and I think organ transfers will be accomplished by unmanned drones.
You've probably gathered that I don't immediately like the idea, but obviously you know the logistics of what you're proposing better than I do. Still, food for thought.
My question would be about the practicalities rather than the legalities. I have not got the reference any more, but I have seen a career fatality rate 1/8 for US medical pilots (I think this included both helimed - which didn't surprise me - and medical transfer - which did). It can be hard enough to say 'no' to flying in bad weather as a commercial pilot to start off with. When doing so is likely to lead to the death of a patient it becomes very hard indeed and I have read a number of accident reports where pilots weighed a fairly high risk of killing themselves against the near certainty of killing a patient, and lost.
Next comes the 'time to spare, go by air' issue that flying is often not particularly quick. If you have a slick system for getting the pilot and aircraft ready whilst the donor organ is being removed, and also for transporting the organ from the destination airport to the destination hospital, I can see that this might not be insurmountable. However in the UK one is often limited by the weather. Perhaps this is less of an issue in your region of India, but I suspect that one might get a much better dispatch rate by using professional pilots and more capable aircraft. The problem being that such services become more dangerous and less economically viable if the 'easy' trips are taken from them by amateurs. I realise that India is a developing nation, but from what I've heard from my colleagues medical wages and costs are going up to the extent that doctors are returning to India from the UK because they can make more money there. In such a climate, I feel it should be expected that pilots and medical transfer services should be paid a fair sum for their efforts.
Fast forward 15 years and I think organ transfers will be accomplished by unmanned drones.
You've probably gathered that I don't immediately like the idea, but obviously you know the logistics of what you're proposing better than I do. Still, food for thought.
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Shortly after I got my PPL, the company who I trained with (UK) were tasked with flying an organ to Scotland from the Midlands and took the 172 I had been flying the day before.
One of the conrods appeared through the side of the cowling on long finals and the aircraft ditched into the Firth of Forth. Both chaps on board escaped ok and Navy divers recovered the organ a couple of hours later. The operation went ahead successfully with a slight delay.
This may help to explain some reticence in the U.K. towards using singles.
On a couple of occasions since, I have carried organs on the flight deck of the big stuff.
One of the conrods appeared through the side of the cowling on long finals and the aircraft ditched into the Firth of Forth. Both chaps on board escaped ok and Navy divers recovered the organ a couple of hours later. The operation went ahead successfully with a slight delay.
This may help to explain some reticence in the U.K. towards using singles.
On a couple of occasions since, I have carried organs on the flight deck of the big stuff.
Unless the organs were corneas, there is no way they would have used them after being underwater, even if the temperature hadnt changed. The containers are not watertight. Slight risk of infection......But makes a good story 
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Like RadGirl I was a bit sceptical - more from the time perspective than the risk of infection - but google came up trumps:
Transplant organ rescued from ditched aircraft.
To the OP, despite my concerns I wish you luck.
Transplant organ rescued from ditched aircraft.
To the OP, despite my concerns I wish you luck.
I am truly amazed. Mind you it was 1993......and I suppose the surgeon made the decision so he just spoke to God and got the OK
Seriously though, best wishes to OP. Dont try this though
Seriously though, best wishes to OP. Dont try this though
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During my career with Flybe in the UK carried quite a few organs for transplant from A to B. Yes they were packed in a cool box, most often carried on the flight deck as cabin crew sometimes not so keen to have coolbox in their galley!!. Brought to the aircraft before departure by the police and collected from the aircraft by the police waiting at t'other end, and ready with the blue lights.. Perhaps surprisingly, but pleasingly so, it always worked like clockwork. Nice to be able to help albeit in a small way.
