Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #464

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Human Heart With ‘No Intended Recipient' Found on Southwest Flight, Causing Plane to Divert
By David Oliver, USA TODAY
Someone left a human heart in the cargo hold of a recent Southwest Airlines flight from
Seattle, causing the Dallas- bound flight to turn around.
Like a mishan- dled bag, the human organ was mistakenly kept on the con- necting
flight. The
heart was en route to an area tissue processor to recover valves for "future surgical procedures."
"There was no intended recipi- ent," Sierra Donor Services spokesperson Deanna Santana said in a statement to USA TODAY Thursday. "While this gift was rerouted, it was received unharmed... to
prepare the valves for future transplant."
Southwest described the Sunday
evening incident in a statement to USA TODAY, referring to the transplant organ on Flight
3606 as "a life- critical cargo shipment" that was "intended to stay in Seattle for deliv- ery to a local hospital."
However, the human
heart was intended for
LifeNet Health, a tissue proces- sor in Renton, Washington, where a con- tracted
courier ultimate- ly transported the organ.
Despite the delay,
the Seattle Times reported the heart was delivered 12 hours before it would have been unusable.
The "heart 'left on plane' reach ed its intended destination in time!" Santana added.
During the Sunday flight, the captain told the passengers about the heart to explain why the flight need- ed to redirect, saying the heart had been left on the plane follow- ing a previous flight
from Sacrament o, California, to Seattle.
"We made the decision to return to Seattle as it was absolutely nec- essary to deliver the shipment to its destination in
the Seattle area as quickly as possible," Southwest said in a statement.
But that's not all: The flight also had an "unrelated mechanical issue."
"We brought in a different air- craft to continue the flight to Dallas, with an estimated delay of approximately five hours," the statement con- tinued. "Nothing is more impor- tant to us than the Safety of
our Customers and the safe delivery of the precious cargo we transport every day."
Dr. Andrew Gottschalk, who was on the flight, expressed his frustrations with the airline in a phone call with USA TODAY.
He accused the airline of lying that the ship- ment was "life- critical." He added the air- line inconve- nienced its pas- sengers and treated them like cattle. He said he would like to hear Southwest say "We take responsibility for our actions."
Responding to Gottschalk's claims, Southwest told USA TODAY: "We acted on the information available to us at the time."
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