By Cheryl Williams
Austin, Texas
According to the official U.S. government Web site for organ and tissue donation there is an urgent need for organs.
• More than 93,000 men, women and children currently await life-saving transplants.
• Every 12 minutes,,onother name is added to the national transplant waiting list.
• An average of 18 people die each day due to the lack of available organs for transplant.
Draughon-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport in Temple is playing a vital role in helping Scott & White Hospital save lives. Airport Director Sharon Rostovich agreed to talk with me about that role.
CW: How does this work … transporting organs to or from S&W? Do you know in advance when you are going to ship on argon or get on organ in?
SR: No, we don’t. Although S&W does perform kidney transplants, they mostly harvest organs for others to transplant. The organs are shipped out all across the United States. We have corporate jets and charters coming in and waiting for this cargo. We never know when the jets will be coming to pick up an organ. A lot of times, unfortunately, it is because of a bad accident. Our airport is open every day from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., but sometimes we get phone calls at 2 a.m. We have a call-up list, and I call one of my team and they come here and immediately fuel the aircraft because organs hove to be transported quickly.
CW: Who pays for the fuel and the pilot for the transporting aircraft? And whose pilot and aircraft are used?
SR: I’m sure that is not a cheap venture when you have to secure and deliver an organ for transplant. I’m sure it is part insurance and part of what the poor patient pays. S&W doesn’t hire them. S&W will call a hospital to advise them they are harvesting an organ. If it is an organ transplant, it can be the transplanting hospital that would do that, or it could be a corporate pilot hired by a family. Say there is a patient in New Jersey, and he is the next one on the list for a heart, and then S&W ends up harvesting a heart, S&W will call that hospital and a plane will immediately be dispatched here to sit and wait for the team of doctors and ambulances. Usually, the jet sits here while they harvest the organ. A lot of times it is in an Igloo-like little ice chest. It is amazing. And then sometimes they are in boxes and other types of coolers … it just depends. Then, the hospital team comes out here by ambulance and if the jet is already here, they load the cooler on the plane, and it immediately departs. So that’s kind of how that works.
CW: And, if the transport plane is not there yet, where does if stay until if arrives?
SR: Well, sometimes it sits on our counter and sometimes the medical team will stay with it until the plane arrives. It just depends on the situation. Like the box in the photo-it was brought to us, and we placed it on my desk for safekeeping while we waited for the plane to arrive to take it.
CW: What was in that box?
SR: A kidney. And see the thing is, it is very time sensitive. There is not a whole lot of hours that can go by from the time that organ is harvested to the time it is implanted. So, it is all a timing thing-and that is why the airport is so important. So, if we weren’t here to provide that service, to provide that fuel this couldn’t happen. That is what is so important about our role in this.
CW: This is really an incredible opportunity you have because of your location to S&W!
SR: Exactly, and a lot of times a family’s loss of a loved one is just such a tragic situation. But, if you try to look at it on the positive side-sometimes we have five jets silting here waiting for five different organs, from say an accident victim. Well, that’s five people whose lives were probably saved from that one person. You have to keep your perspective OIJ it or you will get a little overwhelmed by it. I mean, someone died, but five people lived. It is very sad in one respect but then joyous in another.
CW: What a strange mix of emotions lo deal with.
SR: Yeah, and we are kind of in the middle of it. We know when they come with a full ice chest.
CW: You help S&W serve other patient needs as well, right?
SR: Yes. We’ve had cases where we have had babies flown in here in incubators to S&W for special care. We’ve had cancer patients that have been flown in from across the U.S. They are not organ flights, but they are medical flights … where they have actually flown into S&W for their care. We have a lot of flights that come from Mexico. There was a family that had their own plane and for years they brought their daughter in for cancer treatment at S&W. With the hospital now having this major cancer research center here with Dr. Arthur Frankel in their Hematology/Oncology Department, many more people are
coming in.
CW: So, you are just a complete asset for S&W!
SR: Well, I hope they feel that way, because I think we are.
They do!
“Speed is essential in organ donation and transport. Temple Airport’s close proximity to S&W Hospital makes all the difference in the world. It helps the organ transplant process by providing quick transport of donated organs to out-of-area transplant centers. “Decreasing the length of time from when an organ is removed and transplanted maximizes organ function.’ – Arthur Reso, RN, CCRN, Organ Donor Clinician, Scott & White Hospital of Central Texas
CW: You said you support the Angel Flight Program?
SR: Absolutely we do! Most of our pilots transport cancer patients. These pilots donate their airplane, their fuel cost, everything. The potients don’t pay anything. It is for people who can’t afford this … their finances have been wiped out because of having cancer or whatever. So, the pilots will pick them up from wherever … sometimes from Oklahoma or other places to bring them to S&W or to another hospital il’l Texas. So, instead of that poor patient trying to get on a bus or trying to find some kind of transportation, these pilots go and pick them up, take them to their hospital appointment, then stay there to bring the patient back home. And, we are very proud because we have a lot of Angel Flight pilots based here. We provide fuel service for them also, and we give them a discount and try to support that program because it is so important to these patients, otherwise, they are just stuck.
CW: You must have a sense of making a difference … not just running an airport for revenue for the city but receiving considerable personal reward.
SR: Yes. We have that. And we meet so many interesting people. Some break your heart and some make you smile. And, then we also have a Department of Defense contract, so with everything that is going on in Iraq we have a lot of military customers. And to see them … they are so young, and you just want to … at least I do … being a mom … I just want to go put my arms around them. They fly in, they get fuel, they are being deployed to Iraq … and we are here for them, too. We provide fuel to them. So, it’s just all kinds of things. And, to me there is nothing better than working at a general aviation airport. We are very proud of our airport. We’ve got a very small team out here. We’ve only got 12 people that work here. And, among those 12 people are 158 years of experience. I think that says a lot for the team that we have put together. They care about the airport, they love the airport, and they are dedicated to doing whatever they need to do. I think that is just evidenced by everything that goes on out here.
CW: It would be hard to NOT come to work every day. You don’t want to miss anything.
SR: That is true. People really do need you. And, you never know who is going to fly in. We may get former President Bush flying in. We had Oprah Winfrey fly in. We get 3-stor generals flying in. It is just so cool because you meet so many interesting people.
Sharon added, “Our airport and our service get us compliments from people who come in from all over the United States.”
Little wonder! Check out their awards:
• 2006 Premier Spirit Gold Award. (They were among the only 20 percent of ‘all Texas airports that were even considered.)
• 2006 FAA SW Regional Airport Safety Award. (They were the only general aviation airport to win this award out of a five-state region.)
Note: For information about how you can donate visit www.organdonor.gov
