The delivery of “organ transplant” is to complete the last wish of an organ donor to make a life continue. Every job of National Airborne Service Corps is a race against clock.
Laet at night around 2:30 on Mar 29 2015, the phone started ringing and a fax came in at the duty command center of the Corps’ HQs. Instructor Yang, Hsing-Jung, who was on duty that night, thought, ok, another emergency mission. With the fax at hand, Instructor Yang started to talk to the resident doctor of Ministry of Health and Welfare on duty at the National Rescue Command Center: a heart had to be delivered from Taitung MacKay Memorial Hospital to China Medical University Hospital in Taichung for transplant. That was the last wish of an organ donor, and Instructor Yang got his brain started thinking how to make this flight shorter and help complete the “last wish of this organ donor” as quickly as possible. Immediately, Instructor Yang called the standby crew of Squadron 3, 3rd Wing of the Corps (stationed in Taitung) to pick up the medical staff and the donated organ and fly them to Xiaogang Airport, Kaohsiung. At the same time, he called the crew of Squadron 1, 2nd Wing standing by at Chingchuankang Airport, Taichung to fly to Xiaogang Airport, Kaohisung to meet up with the organ delivery helicopter. As the crews were dispatched, Instructor Yang turned and talked to the MHW doctor about the flight route, making sure that the medical staff and the two crews met up right on schedule.
Early in the morning of the 29th after checking the weather, the UH-1H, numbered NA-507, Squadron 3, 3rd Wing picked up 5 medical workers and the organ and took off at 10:24 for Xiaogang Airport, Kaohsiung, and landed at 11:05. Immediately, the medical workers transferred to the AS-365N, numbered NA-107, of Squadron 1, 2nd Wing waiting at Xiaogang Airport, Kaohsiung. NA-107 took off at 11:08 and landed at the helipad of China Medical University Hospital at 11:53. The mission was a success.
Instructor Yang, who has years of experience flying and won the rescue worker of 2013, remembered that he once delivered a donated heart from Hualien Airport to Taipei Veteran General Hospital when he was a pilot of Squadron 3, 1st Wing in 2009. He has great respect for the one who donated the organs as the last wish, as that organ kept a life going. It was a bright, sunny day that day and the mission was a complete success, as if the god was watching over him. Mr. Yang said that every mission in fact comes with its risks, and every link, no matter how small it is, has to be accounted for. He added that weather is one of the important factors to make or break a mission. It happens a lot that the crew has to turn as they receive an order and arrive at the target area because of the poor weathers. It is frustrating and cannot be helped. When people are in need, we reach out our helping hand, give them hope and keep them safe. That is our job and mission.