First Drone Delivery of a Kidney

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Meredith Cohn of the Baltimore Sun reported, “The first-ever organ delivered by drone was transplanted into a patient with kidney failure at the University of Maryland Medical Center, capping more than three years of work to show unmanned aircraft can safely transport life-saving organs and tissue.” Note one doctor in the video, making a homage to Apollo 11: “One small hop for a drone, one major leap for medicine.”  Note the cheers of waiting personnel when the drone lands successfully. As reported in Aero-News Network, “On Friday, April 19th, at approximately 12:30 am, a human donor kidney was loaded onto the UMMC drone. The flight, led by the University of Maryland UAS Test Site at St. Mary’s County, commenced at 1:00 am. The vehicle traveled 2.6 miles and flew for approximately 10 minutes. The human kidney was successfully delivered to University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and was scheduled to be used for a transplant surgery at 5:00 am.” Cohn reports …