bad news if you are waiting for an organ transplant

**BlueWahooChambordDevil** · June 5th, 2007, 12:57 PM

6 believed dead in medical plane crash

MILWAUKEE - No one was believed to have survived the crash of a small plane that was carrying a six-member organ transplant team and their cargo of donor organs, authorities said Tuesday.

Searchers found human remains during a search in Lake Michigan, about six miles northeast of Milwaukee, a Coast Guard official said Tuesday.

The team's lifesaving mission "? carrying unspecified organs from Milwaukee for transplant to a patient in Michigan "? was cut short Monday when the Cessna Citation went down in 57-degree water shortly after the pilot signaled an emergency.

Those on board were two surgeons and two donor specialists from the University of Michigan Health System and two pilots who regularly fly their transplant missions.

"The condition of the aircraft debris and human remains found indicate a high-speed impact," said Coast Guard Capt. Bruce Jones at a news conference. "We believe this to have been a non-survivable crash."

Dr. Darrell A. Campbell, chief of staff of the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers, said the thoughts of the university community were with the families of those involved.

"We take consolation in the fact that the team was on a mission to help another," he said.

The patient who was to have received the transplant organs was in critical condition, the university said. Jay Campbell, executive director of the Wisconsin Donor Network, declined to say which hospital the team was working with, citing privacy regulations.

The first human remains were found late Monday but hadn't been identified, Jones said. Divers stopped searching at nightfall, while crews of a Coast Guard boat and helicopter continued searching using night vision goggles

Only small parts of the plane had been found so far, Jones said.

Jones said they wouldn't speculate on the crash's cause. The National Transportation Board was expected to arrive later Tuesday.

The university identified those aboard the plane as: Dr. Martinus "Martin" Spoor, a cardiac surgeon who had been on the faculty since 2003; Dr. David Ashburn, a physician-in-training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery; Richard Chenault II, a transplant donation specialist with the university transplant program; Richard Lapensee, a transplant donation specialist with the university transplant program; and pilots Dennis Hoyes and Bill Serra.

The plane took off from General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee and was headed for Willow Run airport near Detroit, a 42-minute flight, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

Within five minutes of its takeoff, the pilot declared an emergency and requested a return to Mitchell, Molinaro said. But the plane dropped off radar screens just after the pilot made that request and the Coast Guard was contacted.

Light rain was falling at the airport with wind of 12 mph, gusting to 22 mph, according to J.J. Wood, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

The plane was leased by the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, according to the university. It's owned by Toy Air and based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Jones estimated the plane was going 185 to 190 mph. He said people could survive for 16 hours in 57-degree water.

**MikeJones** · June 5th, 2007, 01:03 PM

Oh man could you imagine waiting for a transplant and someone comes in and tell you the plane with the organs and surgeons crashed. My first thought would be that it was some kinda joke.

**BlueWahooChambordDevil** · June 5th, 2007, 01:04 PM

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: MikeJones</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Oh man could you imagine waiting for a transplant and someone comes in and tell you the plane with he organs and surgeons crashed. My first thought would be that it was some kinda joke. </div></div>
that is pretty funny sh!t

**aphrodite4ever** · June 5th, 2007, 02:06 PM

Wow, I wonder how long the person is going to have to wait for more organs.

**imported_elp6n** · June 6th, 2007, 11:46 AM

ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) -- The transplant patient awaiting an organ being delivered on a plane that crashed in Lake Michigan may become the seventh fatality of the accident if another organ can't be found quickly.

The patient was put back on the waiting list for another organ Tuesday and was reported to be "very critically ill," a day after six members of an organ transplant team died trying to save his life.

Hospital officials and organ-donation authorities would not identify the transplant patient other than to say he was a man, and would not say what type of organ he was awaiting, citing medical privacy rules.

But one of the doctors killed was a cardiac surgeon, suggesting the patient was about to get a new heart or lungs.

"It was a very sad moment in the operating room" when word came that the plane had gone down on its way from Milwaukee, said Dr. Jeffrey Punch, chief of transplant surgery at the University of Michigan Health System hospital in Ann Arbor.

The Cessna 550 Citation crashed about 5 p.m., shortly after takeoff. National Transportation Safety Board investigator John Brannen said the pilot had signaled an emergency and was making a left turn and heading back to the Milwaukee airport when the plane went down in 57-degree water.

The crash was under investigation.

Killed were both pilots, two University of Michigan surgeons, and two technicians whose job was to prepare the organ for transplant.

Hospital officials would not disclose how far along the surgery was, but said that typically they do not remove a transplant recipient's old organ until they have a replacement ready.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the donor organ, which was packed in ice in a cooler, had not been found. Hearts can last outside the body for only four to six hours and lungs eight hours, said Dr. Tony D'Alessandro, executive director of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinic Organ Procurement Organization.

On the morning of the crash, the Ann Arbor hospital's Survival Flight Team received word that an organ was available at an unidentified hospital in the Milwaukee area. It immediately assembled to bring it back to Ann Arbor, officials said.

The team included two veterans, cardiac surgeon Dr. Martinus "Martin" Spoor and transplant donation specialist Richard Chenault II, who had flown dozens of such missions. Also on the team were Dr. David Ashburn, a 35-year-old physician-in-training in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, and another transplant donation specialist, Richard LaPensee.

The team flew to Milwaukee, and the two surgeons removed the donor's organ, which was then packaged for transport. The team contacted the Ann Arbor hospital and gave the go-ahead for the surgery to begin on the transplant patient at 2:45 p.m., Punch said.

The plane took off as light rain fell with winds at 12 mph, gusting to 22 mph. At the controls were Dennis Hoyes and Bill Serra, two pilots who worked for Marlin Air Inc., the university's jet-service contractor.

The plane hit the water at about 190 mph, authorities said. By midday Tuesday, only small parts of the aircraft -- including pilot seats and small pieces of the cockpit -- had been found.

A recent NTSB study found that accidents involving emergency medical services flights -- those carrying patients or organs for transplant -- have been increasing. Between January 2002 and January 2005 there were 55 such accidents and 54 deaths.