This drone delivered a set of lungs in six minutes
By Kelsey Rolfe | Photography By Jason Vanbruggen |
By Kelsey Rolfe | Photography By Jason Vanbruggen |
In 1986, Shaf Keshavjee was part of the surgical team at Toronto General Hospital that pulled off the world’s first successful double lung transplant. Now, he’s back with another life-saving innovation: delivering lungs by drone.
Typically, when a pair of lungs becomes available, a hospital team hops in a car or on a jet to retrieve the organs. Keshavjee, the director of UHN’s Toronto lung transplant program, realized that drones could shave hours off the process by dodging traffic or time-consuming flight logistics. He partnered with the bioelectronics company Unither to build a drone with an organ chamber, capable of safely transporting lungs up to 30 kilometres, complete with temperature and vibration controls, its own GPS system and a ballistic parachute.
This past September, Keshavjee used his invention to send a real set of lungs from Toronto Western Hospital to Toronto General for the first time. Once the organs completed their six-minute flight from helipad to helipad, Keshavjee rushed them downstairs and used them to save a man’s life. The pilot project was just the first step in a major advancement for lung transplantation. Next on Keshavjee’s list? Extending the drone’s maximum distance to one day forgo jet transports entirely.