Photo: Courtesy of Air China

 

Photo: Courtesy of Air China

The Ground Services Department of Air China has completed two live organ transportation runs, building a “green lifeline” for patients in the air with their effective services.

On April 22, 2022, the transit service center of the department received notification that flight CA1314 was carrying live organs that night. Since CA1314 was a cargo flight, the organs were kept by the captain, and the transit service center was responsible for handing over the live organs and delivering them to the doctor.

Gao Jingwei, a senior official from the center, immediately contacted the doctor, asked about the precautions for receiving the organ preservation box, and determined the place and time of the handover.

Gao and his operational staff rehearsed the transfer process, carefully considering all possible problems to ensure that everything would be fine for the official transfer.

Moreover, he arranged for two staff members to be responsible for the transport, in a bid to minimize transport time and to help save the patient.

As soon as the cabin door of the flight opened, the two employees quickly handed over the organ preservation box. A car had been waiting by the plane and it reached the terminal within 14 minutes, saving nearly 50 minutes compared with the normal procedure. 

On May 4, the department received another notice that flight CA1712 would carry three live organs that urgently needed to be transferred to Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province from Beijing. 

Due to the tense situation of the epidemic in Beijing, staff members from the Organ Procurement Organization cannot leave the city, but the survival time of the living organs after leaving the body is limited.

Given this, the department immediately opened a green channel with all the relevant security personnel ready.

However, with only 50 minutes left before the departure time of flight CA1712, the ambulance to transport the living organs was delayed.

Photo: Courtesy of Air China

 

Photo: Courtesy of Air China

 
After connecting with the hospital, Tang Yan, head of check-in services, learned that the hospital had just finished surgery due to the large number of organs and the difficulty of the operation, and was preparing to leave for the terminal, hoping that the airline would give time to help ensure that the organs could be taken on the flight.

Two minutes after the ambulance arrived at the airport, Tang finished the hand over, and then pulled the transport box all the way to the security check, where the green channel for unescorted live organ transport had been opened.

They spent 13 minutes from handing over the box to boarding the plane. After the hospital learned that the living organs arrived safely at the destination airport, they were very moved and sent a banner to the check-in staff of the Ground Services Department, together with a letter of commendation for all Air China staff.

The letter reads that with the company's strong support, the green channel for “life relay” has helped with organ donation. “Thank you for the company's support for the cause of organ donation and transplantation in China!” the letter read.