Technology and Science11 September, 20263 min read
Nashville Donor Services Sends C-130 Liver To Houston On Sept. 11, 2001
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Nashville Donor Services shipped a donor liver to Houston on a military C-130 on 9/11. Flight occurred amid grounded commercial flights, enabling life-saving transplant for a six-month-old.
6 outlets told this the same way.
Organ flight on 9/11
On Sept. 11, 2001, a liver donation left Nashville International Airport on a C-130 military plane and helped save the life of Kareena, a 6-month-old Houston infant who needed a liver transplant as flights were grounded after four planes were hijacked by terrorists and crashed.
“A liver donation that left Nashville International Airport on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, saved the life of a 6-month-old infant in Houston.”
WSMV reported that the match was found in Nashville that morning and that, with help from the FAA and the Tennessee National Guard, the liver boarded the C-130 and took off before noon.
WKRN News 2 said Kareena was dying of liver failure in a Houston hospital and needed a liver transplant within 12 to 48 hours, and it quoted Tennessee Donor Services CEO Jill Grandas recalling that when they were told “the planes are grounded,” she asked, “Oh my God. What are we gonna do?'”.
The same WKRN account described how Grandas called Nashville [Air Traffic Control] Tower and was transferred to the supervisor of the tower that day, Sherry Jensen, who said, “I understand your emergency.”
Aviation clearance and pilots
WKRN News 2 said the Tennessee Air National Guard ultimately flew the donor liver from Nashville to Houston and that for a few hours the 118th Wing’s aircraft was the only plane aloft in the United States.
It quoted retired 118th Wing commander Col. Thomas “Chuck” Echols saying that because all the airspace was grounded, they had to get clearance from the White House to get that authorized, and it quoted Echols describing the airspace as “everybody was grounded.”
The same WKRN account included a 2023 recollection from retired Capt. John Howard that “there was no radio chatter on the radio, so we were the only ones on the radio,” and Howard added, “It went through our heads, just, ‘Are we going to get shot out of the sky?'”.
ABC13 Houston described the reunion 25 years later at Texas Children’s, where Dr. John Goss, Medical Director of Transplant Services at Texas Children's, performed Kareena's transplant and said, “It's great to see the children grow up after transplantation and grow to achieve what they were meant to achieve.”
25 years later, lasting impact
Twenty-five years after the transplant, WSMV said Kareena met her donor coordinator in person for the first time last week, and it described her as now 25 years old and a law student in Houston.
“She was gonna die within 24 hours if she didn’t get a liver transplant. So it was very dire.”
WSMV quoted Jill Grandas saying, “For the last several years she has called me every September 11th,” and it also quoted Grandas reflecting, “Out of something so tragic. We saved a life that day.”
WZTV said Grandas told FOX 17 News that Kareena “would not have survived,” and it quoted Grandas describing the urgency as “She was gonna die within 24 hours if she didn’t get a liver transplant. So it was very dire.”
Houston Chronicle’s account tied the mission to the broader stakes of organ donation by describing how, after the attacks, Grandas said, “We were determined that we weren’t going to let another person die as a result of that attack,” and it noted that the liver was flown almost 800 miles from Nashville to Ellington Field on a C-130 cargo plane.