WCPO: First responders race to deliver organ donation from CVG to Children's Hospital during snowstorm
02/12/2021
WCPO-TV 9 / February 11, 2021
CINCINNATI — Police and firefighters from CVG Airport and Cincinnati raced against time to make a life-saving delivery from the airport to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Wednesday evening.
Their task: drive a much-needed organ donation from the airport to Children's during a snowstorm that snarled traffic on local interstates for hours.
CVG firefighter and EMT Jason Baumann was cooking in the station kitchen when he got the text from his captain: An unexpected delivery was about to arrive.
“He told me the situation, that a plane had to make a diverted landing to Cincinnati, and we had to get some doctors and a cooler with organs in it to Children’s Hospital for transplant surgery,” he said.
By then, snow had already fallen quickly across the area, covering major roads and highways more quickly than snow removal crews could keep up, resulting in major traffic backups.
“We left at 5:10, right at the height of rush hour, and with all that snow -- horrible conditions,” he said.
Still, Baumann hopped in a CVG pickup truck with medical staff and the organ. He and other firefighters had to coordinate with dispatchers to plot the fastest way from the Hebron, Kentucky, airport to the Avondale hospital with highways gridlocked. Cincinnati officers said Burnet Avenue, Vine Street and Highland Avenue were clogged with traffic caught in snow and ice by rush hour.