Tragedy strikes the Transplant Program and Survival Flight teams as six members are lost while working to save the life of a patient.
In University Hospital in Ann Arbor, the patient lay prepped and awaiting the gift of donated organs for a double-lung transplant that could save his life. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Cessna jet lifted off with six members of the U-M transplant team and Survival Flight crew transporting the donor lungs packed in ice for the 45-minute flight to Willow Run Airport outside Ypsilanti. Moments later, the plane had crashed into the waters of Lake Michigan, killing all aboard, and the patient once again was in peril of losing his life.
Throughout the Health System, shock and disbelief gradually gave way to great communal grief even as other members of the transplant team resumed the urgent search for a new pair of donor lungs. Six of our own were suddenly gone. In a field of endeavor where life and death are confronted every day, the Michigan medical community — indeed, the entire University — tried desperately to accept the unfathomable, awful truth. And almost immediately, amidst tremendous emotion, memorials to the fallen began.
June 4, 2007, will forever be a dark day in Michigan’s history, and in the personal histories of the six stunned families left behind. But underlying the loss remains the nobility of the cause and the individuals themselves: Putting patients first, we do all we can to save lives. In this extreme case, six were lost in service to others, the ultimate sacrifice we more typically associate with those at war, or those who protect our communities from fire, disaster or crime. Even as we grieve their loss, we celebrate and honor the extraordinary dedication, humanism and high ideals embodied by these six who inspire us to try even harder, to do even more, to save all the lives we humanly can.
Within days, another set of donor lungs was located, safely transported to University Hospital and transplanted into the patient who continues to recover. His progress, and the many physicians, nurses, surgeons and staff who made it possible, stand as our beacon during a long time of deep healing.
Ashburn. Chenault. LaPensee. Spoor. Hoyes. Serra. These names represent the very best about us, and are forever forged in our hearts and in our history, icons of Michigan, exemplars of public service, each one a hero to every one of us.
—Rick Krupinski
