Acadian Ambulance of Texas is the official ground transport provider in Houston for LifeGift and Houston Methodist Transplant Center organ transplant cases.
Typically, organs are transported in a specialized cooler. But with the adoption of the new Transmedics Organ Care System in Texas, transports will be done using state-of-the-art devices.
This past April, Acadian Ambulance, serving under LifeGift, participated in the very first liver and breathing lung transplant using the Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) procedure with the TransMedics Organ Care System Lung (OCS Lung) technology. In addition, Acadian provides specialized vehicles designed to safely transport the device, organ and transplant team together.
The OCS Lung System, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March, is designed to keep donor lungs functioning and “breathing” in human-like conditions from the time of the donor procedure all the way to transplant surgery.
The organs Acadian transported were delivered to Baylor St. Luke Medical Center where patient Silviano Trino received the organs Acadian transported and underwent a successful double-lung transplant. The procedure was life-changing for Trino and groundbreaking for the lung transplantation process, where organ rejection rates are high, according to cardiothoracic surgeon Gabriel Loor, who led the transplant operations. Dr. Loor is the surgical director of the lung transplant program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and director of lung transplantation in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
Acadian transported the lungs from the Midwest to the Texas Medical Center and kept in the OCS Lung machine for 11 hours. Prior to coming to Baylor St. Luke’s, the Trinos, who live in Miami, had gone to four other medical centers that perform a high volume of lung transplants, but were turned away due to Silviano’s health.
“I am very proud of our Acadian Ambulance team. This is healthcare collaboration at its best—healthcare professionals thinking outside the box to find better solutions, then working together to positively impact human life! Acadian Ambulance Texas is honored to be part of medical history and to help set new transport standards,” said Acadian Greater Houston Area Manager Eric Stricklin.
Read more on Silviano’s successful lung transplant from Baylor St. Luke’s.
