Life-Saving Mission and Death

Yesterday's plane crash into Lake Michigan just off the McKinley Marina in Milwaukee had an especially tragic twist.

Any crash that involves a loss of life is a tragedy, but sometimes circumstances make the accident even more gut-wrenching.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Six members of a medical team from the University of Michigan returning from Milwaukee with organs for a transplant patient were missing late Monday after the plane they were in crashed into Lake Michigan just off the lakefront.

The crash stunned rush hour motorists driving along Lincoln Memorial Drive and sparked a massive air and water search by Milwaukee firefighters, Milwaukee police, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Milwaukee County sheriff's office.

...The pilot of the Cessna 550 Citation issued a distress call at 3:58 p.m., Capt. Bruce Jones, Lake Michigan sector commander for the United States Coast Guard, said at a news conference Monday night at the McKinley Marina.

The search of the lake Monday night was centered on an area about 1 1/2 miles east of the marina.

...The team had procured organs for a transplant patient at the University of Michigan Health System hospital whose operation had to be suspended because of the crash, the statement said.

The patient remained in critical condition late Monday, the statement said.

University spokeswoman Krista Hopson confirmed that the team was in Milwaukee to harvest organs but said she could not confirm the hospital where the procurement took place or what types of organs were involved.

Early reports indicating that the team had procured a pair of lungs from Columbia-St. Mary's Milwaukee Campus hospital could not be confirmed late Monday.

Tony Molinaro, a spokesman with Federal Aviation Administration's Great Lakes region in Chicago, said the twin-engine Cessna 550 departed from Mitchell International Airport for Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Within five minutes, the pilot contacted the tower at Mitchell, declaring an emergency and requesting permission to return to the airport, Molinaro said.

The plane then disappeared from FAA radar, and the agency contacted the U.S. Coast Guard and requested that it begin a search.

The University of Michigan issued a press release on the crash:

At approximately 5:50 p.m. ET today, the University of Michigan Health System was notified that a Cessna jet leased by its U-M Survival Flight air ambulance program had crashed into Lake Michigan.

Six members of the U-M Survival Flight team were aboard: two members of the staff of Marlin Air, which flies all Survival Flight airplane missions, and four U-M employees. The aircraft was owned by Toy Air and based at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, and was en route back to U-M after procuring organs for transplant into a patient at U-M.

Aboard the aircraft were:

David Ashburn, M.D., a fellow (physician-in-training) in cardiothoracic surgery

Richard Chenault II, a transplant donation specialist with the U-M Transplant Program

Dennis Hoyes, a Marlin air pilot

Richard Lapensee, a transplant donation specialist with the U-M Transplant Program

Bill Serra, a Marlin air pilot

Martinus (Martin) Spoor, M.D., a cardiac surgeon who had been on the U-M faculty since 2003

The search for survivors was continuing, led by the U.S. Coast Guard. The families of all aboard have been notified.

“The thoughts of the entire University community are with the families of those involved this evening,” says Darrell A. Campbell, M.D., chief of staff of the U-M Hospitals & Health Centers and a transplant surgeon. “We vigilantly await the results of the Coast Guard’s search.”

As soon as the Survival Flight dispatchers received word of the incident, they reached the transplant team that had been preparing the patient who was the transplant candidate, and the operation was suspended. The patient remains in critical condition.

Even though the search failed to locate any survivors, it hasn't been called off. There's still a shred of hope.

Lake Michigan's water temperature is around 57 degrees. At that temperature, a person could survive for about 16 hours.

Although it's feared that no one on board survived the crash, maybe someone by some miracle will be found alive. Unfortunately, that hope is fading fast.

The U-M Survival Flight team are life-savers, but in this case, they're the victims. The loss of their lives would impact the outcome of so many other lives. How many other life-saving missions could they have carried out?

They aren't the only victims here.

The organs are lost. There will be no transplant.

Imagine being the patient awaiting those organs. Imagine the family members believing and hoping that their loved one would get a chance at survival and that chance had arrived yesterday.

It's such a cruel twist of fate to experience the elation of an answered prayer, and then have that joy ripped away.

The donor family must be suffering, too. Imagine losing a loved one, but finding some comfort in knowing that another life would be saved through organ donation. Then, think of dealing with the plane crash.

So many lives. So much hope. So much loss.

Life can be so unbearably sad.