Organ Donor Network Thankful Bay Bridge Woes Didn't Force Them To Leave Hearts in San Francisco

'I left my heart, in San Francisco. High on a hill, it calls to me...'

​The Bay Bridge's long weekend closure -- which could have been longer -- may have killed your commute. The people at California Transplant Donor Network, meanwhile, are thankful, however, that it didn't literally kill someone.

The non-profit's community affairs supervisor, Cathy Olmo, told SF Weekly that the span's closure was not a factor -- they didn't need to hustle any organ into or out of the city in the past few days. But the bridge closure did lead to a number of contingency plans that could have caused you to be bumped out of your BART seat by a man with two brains.

If a surgical coordinator or courier on call in San Francisco was required across the Bay, "they [had] instructions to take BART to our Oakland office where we have a couple of staff vehicles," she says. "In the event that we need to get organs back to our [West Bay] transplant centers we'd probably have to fly those organs."
 
Airlifting an organ would have run the donor network thousands of additional dollars, and possibly be slower and more precarious than a courier with a cooler driving determinedly.

"Time is always a factor," Olmo says. "Once you remove an organ, you only have hours."

But the donor network could have been relying on BART for more than just getting personnel to Oakland; it could use the transit system to move organs around the Bay as well.

"Our clinical managers have said nothing is off the table," Olmo says. "It's their call to choose the most expedient way."

In the event of future bridge closures, that could mean a few determined folks charging into the train -- cooler in hand. There's more than one way to get a heart out of San Francisco.

Graphic   |   Upper Playground