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The unmanned aviation system was developed by physicians, researchers and aviation and engineering experts from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the University of Maryland and Living Legacy. Foundation of Maryland, a non-profit organization that facilitates the donation and transplantation of organs and tissues.
"All this is incredible," said the patient, a 44-year-old woman from Baltimore who had spent eight years in dialysis before undergoing the transplant procedure, in a press release. "Years ago, it was not something you could think of."
The faster a organ is transplanted, the better it works. The organ delivery theft to the Baltimore hospital transplant team took about 5 minutes. Yet, the delivery of an organ from a donor to a patient has many moving parts. One of the most crucial and complex steps of the organ transplantation process is therefore transport. As a general rule, donor organs are delivered by chartered or commercial flights. Sometimes, congested air traffic causes delays, while sometimes an organ remains in an airplane.
About 1.5% of donor organ donations did not reach the intended destination and nearly 4% had an unplanned delay of two hours or more, according to the US organ sharing network who manages the organ transplantation system in the United States. Nearly 114,000 people were on the waiting list for an organ transplant in 2018.
The story was preceded by test flights that carried saline, blood tubes, and other medical devices, followed by the transport of a healthy but unviable human kidney. This effort included a number of technological initiatives, including a high-tech device specifically designed to maintain and monitor a viable human organ and a specially designed unmanned aircraft system.
"We have put in place a lot of layoffs because we want to do everything possible to protect the payload," said Anthony Pucciarella, director of operations at the test site. Warranties included propellers and emergency engines, dual batteries, an emergency power distribution board and a parachute recovery system in the event of an aircraft failure.
"As surprising as this breakthrough concerns a purely technical point of view, a broader objective is at stake. It is not ultimately about technology, but about improving human life," he said. Darryll J. Pines, Dean of the University of Maryland. James Clark School of Engineering. He thinks the new technology could potentially expand the pool of donor organs and provide better access to transplantation.
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