The critically ill 50-year-old man whose six-person organ transplant team and donor organ were lost in a plane crash on Lake Michigan has received a double lung transplant after all.
The patient already was prepped for surgery, with his chest cut open and his lungs exposed to the air in the operating room, when the plane crashed, killing six members of a Survival Flight team.
Officials learned late Tuesday that another set of donor organs was available.
"If he had not received a transplant in a timely fashion he would have died," said Dr. Andrew C. Chang, one of two doctors who led the surgical team.
The patient has not been told of the crash. "I'll tell him more when he can handle it," Chang said.
The patient remains in critical condition but his overall condition is "significantly improved."
Comments