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Is It Worth Risking Lives of Multiple Procurement Surgeons to Save One Life in Extreme Weather Conditions?

H. Sharma, I. Al-Hasan, M. Richard, O. Ali, A. Sener, D. Quan, V. Macillister.

Multi Organ Transplantation Unit, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Canada.

Meeting: 2016 American Transplant Congress

Abstract number: C62

Keywords: Procurement

Session Information

Session Name: Poster Session C: Economics, Public Policy, Allocation, Ethics

Session Type: Poster Session

Date: Monday, June 13, 2016

Session Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

 Presentation Time: 6:00pm-7:00pm

Location: Halls C&D

Transplant needs highly skilled surgeons and allied medical staff to travel to distant locations on short notices and secure a deceased donor organ that is fragile and easily perishable. The recommendations after Michigan Mishap in 2007 have been either phased out or not re- discussed, the concern for medical Personnel on roads/air flights for Organ procurement appear to have died out.

We assessed the published data on safety record of travel for procurement in Pubmed, Cinhal, Medline, Google search, old newspaper archives at British National Library. We also compared the Travel Model for Procurement in North America/ Europe/ Australasia.

Published data shows the risk of fatality while traveling on an organ procurement flight is estimated to be 1000 times higher than scheduled commercial flight and involvement in a 'near miss accident' is 80.8%. Since 1990 N=34 fatalities have been reported on flights for organ procurements. There is also no established safety backup data on travel for procurement surgeries. North America and Australasia usually employ Air flights for distant procurement centres, while European Centres usually rely on road travel. No record of fatalities/near miss incidents have been maintained by hospitals, OPO's and other agencies facilitating procurement. There is also no insurance data for economic coverage of the families of procurement surgeons in event of accidents on work.

Ethical principle of Rand et al for Emergencies states to save one self, prior to saving others. Globally we do face severe weather conditions sometimes annually; ethics to send procurement teams in these conditions is a valid ethical dilemma. Even though most transplant facilitating agencies rarely consider these risks but this may be a legal burden and psychological haunt, should a mishap happens?

CITATION INFORMATION: Sharma H, Al-Hasan I, Richard M, Ali O, Sener A, Quan D, Macillister V. Is It Worth Risking Lives of Multiple Procurement Surgeons to Save One Life in Extreme Weather Conditions? Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Sharma H, Al-Hasan I, Richard M, Ali O, Sener A, Quan D, Macillister V. Is It Worth Risking Lives of Multiple Procurement Surgeons to Save One Life in Extreme Weather Conditions? [abstract]. Am J Transplant. 2016; 16 (suppl 3). https://atcmeetingabstracts.com/abstract/is-it-worth-risking-lives-of-multiple-procurement-surgeons-to-save-one-life-in-extreme-weather-conditions/. Accessed May 9, 2025.

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