Organ Transport Vehicles

C17LVFD

Member
May 21, 2010
1,537
Harrisburg, PA
Just curious if anyone has any pictures of dedicated Organ Transport Vehicles...


This is the only thing I've found...

Towards the very end of the clip.

Seth
 

charlie82

Member
May 21, 2010
353
PA / USA
I always thought that they used ambulances? I guess NYC sees so many transplants that such a vehicle is needed.
 

C17LVFD

Member
May 21, 2010
1,537
Harrisburg, PA
I did some research and I'm not even sure they're still in business... Phone number is dead. I have heard of other areas using dedicated vehicles, just curiuos how they're setup... The problem with using ambulances is... Putting 4-5 docs in the back of an ambulance with minimal appropriate seating is a HUGE liability.
 

kaniff

New Member
Jul 10, 2010
1
Hello everyone, this is my first post even tho i've been following for a while,


here in quebec a non profit agency called Canadian Organ Donors Association provides a new vehicle to several police forces every few years in which they use to do the organ transports. There is a list of volunteer police officers that are paged by CODA and go to there respective agencies to pick up the vehicle and do the transport. Theoretically its supposed to be done by off-duty volunteers but i've seen it done by in service officers. As far as logistics go I don't know very much more, but here is a link to the agency's page where they show off all the trucks they bought, http://www.acdo.ca/en/photos/sgs.php?gal=gallery/sub1/


They are currently using Dodge Journey's, with previous vehicles being GMC Envoy's, GMC Suburbans and way back Mazda MPV. Each agency equips the vehicle to there standard lighting package.
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
:lol: yeah right!


Has been covered by police officers for years in France. But over the last few years went to private transport companies, allowed to have blues and twos.


Here is an example:

 

EMS10EMT

Member
Aug 31, 2010
397
NJ
NJ has a few expeditions running around. They have mini phantoms all over the place :roll: The paint scheme is also pretty elaborate, complete with a huge picture of an NJ organ donor license plate.


Ill see if I can get a picture.
 

Stendec

Member
May 21, 2010
816
"These emergency vehicles are fully equipped for emergency response and feature leather interiors, XM Satellite radio, DVD players with LCD screens, 4-wheel drive, and state-of-the-art emergency warning systems."


That's important if you are a liver going to a new home.
 

pdk9

Member
May 26, 2010
3,834
New York & Florida
i've lived in NYC for 22 years and the only dedicated organ transplant vehicles that i've ever seen are the markd Chevy Astro (and probably GMC safari equivalent). i can't open the youtube link from work, but I'm guessing that it's a response video that has one of these vehicles?
 
May 22, 2010
1,163
Central WV
Respondcode3 said:

:eek: Oh, that sucks. I bet someone is in BIG trouble over that one. They will never live that down.


That's why they should have given it to me to drive. That wouldn't have happened, haha. If Lamborghini wants to donate one to me, I'll take one in the same color, except I want mine with a red slicktop package. I'm sure I should be expecting a call next week letting me know they are air freighting one over to me ASAP.
 

nerdly_dood

Member
Jun 15, 2010
2,312
Georgia

C17LVFD

Member
May 21, 2010
1,537
Harrisburg, PA
Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes the link was of a Chevy Astro van. I've also seen a picture of a Ford Excursion with the same paint scheme as the astro van.


Sucks about the Lambo. Hope everyone was ok.
 

Stendec

Member
May 21, 2010
816
VolEms said:
In NY there are a lot of buffs who have LIghts and Sirens and say they are organ transport vehicles.

Technically, unless they are robotic or remote controlled, ALL vehicles are organ transport vehicles - the organs just happen to be conveniently packaged in a human body instead of a Coleman cooler. ;)


Though an Expedition for something the size of a cornea or kidney seems as little much, maybe they need a lot of support equipment.


I took a severed finger from a meat packing plant to the hospital so the guy could have it back, all that took was a styrofoam coffee cup and lid and a Caprice.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
The ambulance service I used to work for ran teams and organs to and from the airport.
 

fp13-2

Member
May 20, 2010
358
Harrisburg, PA
JohnMarcson said:
The ambulance service I used to work for ran teams and organs to and from the airport.
Same here. Sometimes they arrive in a vehicle, but most of the time it's a helicopter. We transport them to/from the helipad.
 

C17LVFD

Member
May 21, 2010
1,537
Harrisburg, PA
Around here for emergency stuff the ambulances do it here as well... but when you're picking up for surgeons and stuffing them in the back of a type II van, with poor seating and lots of bumps... it's not preferable. So that's why I'm curiuos about how other parts of the country do it :cool:
 

whatevah

Member
May 26, 2010
388
Delaware, USA
I've seen a couple Ford Escapes with a fancy paint/decal package from a Philadelphia area hospital (want to say Jefferson, but I'm probably wrong), but I didn't see any lights on them. I'll look closer the next time I see them. One of the private ambulance companies drives surgeons/patients from the local airport for special procedures, but just in a regular ambulance, nothing dedicated.
 

JohnMarcson

Administrator
May 7, 2010
10,971
Northwest Ohio
When the ford taurus came out in the mid/late 1980s there was an emergency blood/organ transport service that used one in my general area..... It was maroon and it had 2 par 36 strobes on the grill and responders with the mirrors 2 on the dash and 2 on the rear deck. It had what sounded like an older whelen siren. I haven't seen an organ transplant vehicle around here since....
 
May 22, 2010
1,163
Central WV
I haven't seen or heard of any in WV, but they might be out there. My guess is that they use ALS ambulances, chase units, or supervisor/chief vehicles to transport them in cases where ground transportation is needed. They also may use a CCT unit if one is avaliable. I would guess in most cases that they just fly them from pad to pad or from airport to pad via one of the HealthNet, Air Evac, or another providers medivac bird. In most cases the birds are stationed at local airports and if one comes in via fixed wing aircraft they could just put it in a waiting bird to be flown straight to the hospital or vise versa. There are a lot of rural hospitals in WV, so I would imagine if an organ was avaliable they would just fly it out in a bird to the nearest level 1 or 2 center to a patient.
 

irsa76

Member
May 24, 2010
342
Australia, NSW
There is a series of 3 vids on youtube of a London Met organ run from the mid 1980s using a pair of traffic Rover 3500s.


Here, Australia, most emergency organ runs use a couple of highway patrol cars, although my local Ambulance department did have a couple of cars they used for a couple of years.
 

TheGatekeeper

Member
Jun 19, 2010
1,734
France
irsa76 said:
There is a series of 3 vids on youtube of a London Met organ run from the mid 1980s using a pair of traffic Rover 3500s.
Here, Australia, most emergency organ runs use a couple of highway patrol cars, although my local Ambulance department did have a couple of cars they used for a couple of years.

That run has become a cause celebre, one of the first organ transplant runs for a little girl on the operating table (aka "The liver run", 8 May 1987) They did use 2 Rovers from the lately created ARV pool, and actually filmed a reenactment a couple years ago for the BBC.


Paris:

 

Mobile Fleet

Member
Jun 7, 2010
35
New York
C17LVFD said:
Just curious if anyone has any pictures of dedicated Organ Transport Vehicles...

This is the only thing I've found...



WOW...we did the install on that organ transport van years ago. It's nice to see our work in service years later. The also have an excursion and a conversion van that we did installs on. The are a legit company and based out of New Jersey.
 

C17LVFD

Member
May 21, 2010
1,537
Harrisburg, PA
Mobile Fleet said:
WOW...we did the install on that organ transport van years ago. It's nice to see our work in service years later. The also have an excursion and a conversion van that we did installs on. The are a legit company and based out of New Jersey.

Are they still in business?? I did some research on them, and their phones were disconnected...??
 

AggiePhil

Member
Jul 17, 2010
146
Southwest
Respondcode3 said:
Oh SNAP! "Dear Chief...No one was more surprised than I when..." :shock: :lol:


And speaking of transplant organ transportation methods, one time when I was working as a hospital volunteer as a kid, a taxi cab driver came flying up to the front door of the hospital, jumped out with a cooler, ran inside, and asked where the OR was. Sure enough, they'd handed off a cooler containing a fresh kidney to a damn cabbie at the airport to be taken to a guy who was laying on the operating room table! But I gotta give it to this cabbie--he handled it like a pro and got it there fast. :)
 

Zapp Brannigan

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 23, 2010
3,580
.
I finally found the pictures of the vehicles I used to deal with, pics are from '08.


They also had an Astrovan (same one as seen in the video that was in the first post in this thread) which I HAD a video of as it left the Hospital Code 3, but I cannot find that...


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0008.jpg


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0009.jpg


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0004.jpg


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0003.jpg


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0002.jpg


ai13.photobucket.com_albums_a255_xfirefighter484x_Dec10_0001.jpg
 

EMS10EMT

Member
Aug 31, 2010
397
NJ
They look good. Wierd that they are registered in NJ though....
 

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