U-M Patient Gets 2nd Set of Lungs: Man Was Waiting for Transplant When Plane With Donated Organs Cra

Jun 08, 06:09 PM

Current Headlines: By Patricia Anstett, Detroit Free Press

Jun. 8--ANN ARBOR -- A 50-year-old Michigan man, unable to get a double lung transplant earlier this week because a plane carrying his donor organs crashed into Lake Michigan, is in stable but critical condition today after receiving a second set of lungs.

The patient likely would have died without the transplant, said Dr. Andrew Chang, surgical director of lung transplant at the University of Michigan. A U-M team completed the seven-hour operation at 3:34 a.m. Thursday. The team was alerted at 3 a.m. Wednesday that a second set of lungs had been found.

The recipient, whose name is being withheld at the request of his family, will remain hospitalized until he can breathe on his own, Chang said.

The patient, a longtime smoker, had a condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. He had been on the waiting list since November 2006.

Dr. Jeffrey Punch, director of U-M's division of transplantation, said the surgical team was "perhaps a little more nervous than usual" doing the surgery because they "didn't want things to fall through a second time."

The man was in the operating room for three hours Monday when the staff was alerted that a plane carrying six U-M Survival Flight team members had crashed into Lake Michigan, just after takeoff from Milwaukee.

The surgery worsened the man's condition and required him to be put on a ventilator, raising his place on national lung recipient lists and improving his chance for getting donor organs, Chang said.

U-M has continued transplant surgery following the crash.

"Our mission here is patient care," said Denise Landis, manager for critical care transport of Survival Flight, U-M's organ recovery team.

Meanwhile, a dozen divers took to Lake Michigan again today in search of the downed twin-engine Cessna carrying the transplant team.

The Milwaukee Police dive team resumed searching at 9 a.m. Detroit time, and hoped to get in a full day's work, said police spokeswoman Annie Schwartz.

Recovery efforts

High winds, thunderstorms and tornadoes in Wisconsin made conditions impossible for diving Thursday.

So far, no large pieces of the Cessna Citation 550 have been found, Schwartz said.

The plane nose-dived into Lake Michigan just after 5 p.m. Monday.

All six members of the Survival team -- two doctors, two organ donation specialists and two pilots, were killed. The crew had retrieved a donor lung from a stroke victim, who died Sunday.

Free Press staff writer Ben Schmitt contributed to this story.

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