![](\"http:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/19\/05\/70x70\/skynews-organ-donor-kidney_4657660.jpg?20190503121208\")
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The unmanned machine is able to maintain and monitor the condition of the organ – and even has a parachute recovery system in case the aircraft fails.<\/p>\n
It is hoped the pioneering work will pave the way for longer flights and address safety issues with current transport methods.<\/p>\n
The organ was given to a 44-year-old woman from Baltimore who had waited more than eight years for the transplant.<\/p>\n
She said: “This whole thing is amazing. Years ago, this was not something that you would think about.”<\/p>\n
The journey may have only been three miles – but a vast array of technology was needed to ensure the organ was delivered safely.<\/p>\n
The custom-made drone has on-board cameras and organ tracking, as well as safety systems for a flight over a densely-populated area.<\/p>\n
Matthew Scassero, part of the engineering team based at the University of Maryland, said: “There’s a tremendous amount of pressure knowing there’s a person waiting for that organ, but it’s also a special privilege to be a part of this critical mission.”<\/p>\n
In 2018, more than 2,700 kidneys had to be thrown away because they had degraded before they could be transplanted.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to be able to save those organs, get them there quicker and get them into patients when they’re still viable,” Mr Scassero added.<\/p>\n
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, last year there were nearly 114,000 people on waiting lists, with 1.5% of organs not making it to the destination and nearly 4% being delayed by more than two hours.<\/p>\n
Joseph Scalea, assistant professor of surgery at University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and one of the surgeons who performed the transplant, said: “This is a major step toward reinventing the way that the current system of organs are moved.<\/p>\n
“I think we helped a lot of people this way. It might take a long time, but it’s a first step.”<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A donor kidney has been delivered to a waiting patient at a US hospital by drone for the first time ever. The unmanned machine is able to maintain and monitor the condition of the organ – and even has a parachute recovery system in case the aircraft fails. It is hoped the pioneering work will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/113422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}