Organ donation - a race against time
At HELI-FLIGHT JLR, we are proud to make a decisive contribution to saving lives with our specialized team and our fleet. @Stefan Gelzenleuchter, graduate engineer and MBA, has been responsible for the Aircraft division since 2018 and thus for missions for the @Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (DSO). His motivation is clear: „I previously worked in the automotive industry and was looking for something new for myself - and if anything is meaningful, it's working in organ donation.“
With 18 pilots and six aircraft in its own aviation operations, HELI-FLIGHT is one of two companies in Germany commissioned by the DSO - and has been for more than 20 years. Our area of responsibility includes the federal states of south-west Germany and, from there, the Eurotransplant area. Sometimes the missions go beyond this, e.g. to Sweden, England, Bulgaria or Romania.
„When a donor organ is available, everything has to run perfectly so as not to jeopardize the organ,“ explains Gelzenleuchter. The crew and aircraft at the HELI-FLIGHT stations in Düsseldorf and Munich, and the control center at the Reichelsheim station, are therefore on standby around the clock, 365 days a year, to fly out donor organs or transport a removal team to the donor hospital and then transport the removed organs - heart, lung, liver, kidney - quickly and safely to the recipient.
Stefan Gelzenleuchter is also available 24/7 in the event of bottlenecks of any kind. Most organ donations take place at night. „One donation can quickly turn into many flights if all the organs are sent to different transplant centers,“ he says. His tasks also include discussing logistics with the DSO at management level in complex situations. „We've had days when we've flown seven missions with four crews.“
Gelzenleuchter, whose circle of acquaintances includes people whose lives have been saved by a donor organ, likes the challenges of his job: „It's the interaction between technology, personnel and logistics. First and foremost, however, it is the value of such a donor organ that is important to me.“
Photos: © Michael Lindner; HELI-FLIGHT
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