Nevada Donor Network is honored to work with a variety of out-of-hospital partners throughout our state who make organ, eye and tissue donation possible every day. Donation is an extremely coordinated effort that requires collaboration, knowledge and support from a variety of professional partners. From emergency medical services (EMS) to coroners, medical examiners, law enforcement, funeral homes and more, every single one of these partners has an important role to play. We believe that through education and mutual respect, together we can build donation-positive communities throughout Nevada.
In Northern Nevada, our procurement transplant coordinators worked with the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) and a transplant center to transplant a heart from a heroic donor in the Reno area. The original plan was to use an Organ Care System (OCS), which is a revolutionary technology also referred to as “heart in a box” that allows a heroic donor’s heart to be kept beating and preserved outside the body during transport and while awaiting transplantation. The OCS was going to be used from Renown Regional Medical Center to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. The heart transplant team decided to deviate from this plan by using the cold pack method instead, which essentially meant that time became the enemy because the heart would not be pumped. Nevada Donor Network had to ensure that that transplant team made it to the airport, and ultimately the awaiting recipient, as expeditiously as possible. This is when our community partnership with REMSA Health in Northern Nevada came to the forefront of our team’s minds.
They reached out to REMSA Health’s dispatch center to determine if their team had the bandwidth to assist with the transport of this heroic donor’s heart. Our procurement transplant coordinator, Jason, explained to several members of REMSA Health’s dispatch the need for their support and why this situation came to be. REMSA Health’s dispatch team was both courteous and helpful, and they promptly helped by sending an emergency medical services (EMS) crew to Renown Regional Medical Center just before the recovery began. Jason met the ambulance downstairs at the emergency department where he briefed them, then escorted the crew to a waiting room outside of the surgical suite where the organ recovery was taking place. When the heroic donor’s heart was recovered, Jason escorted the heart transplant team to where the emergency medical services (EMS) crew was waiting. They were able to rapidly transport the heart team to the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, which ultimately led to the heart making it to its final destination as expeditiously as possible. Someone’s life was saved because of these efforts and hard work.
The entire Nevada Donor Network team would like to take a moment to recognize the efforts of REMSA Health and their ambulance crew who made the gift of life possible through heart transplant. Would you like to support our mission to save and heal lives through organ, eye and tissue donation? Learn more here!