I-Team: State Police Traffic Stop Delays Kidney Delivery To Boston Children's Hospital Transplant Patient
BOSTON (CBS) - Massachusetts State Police are looking into a traffic stop that delayed the transport of a lifesaving organ to a patient waiting in Boston.
Sources tell WBZ-TV's I-Team it happened Sunday afternoon on the Massachusetts Turnpike in the Charlton area. A State Police trooper pulled over an unmarked medical transport vehicle coming from outside New England.
The driver of the vehicle was unlicensed. The trooper called to have the car towed by Interstate Towing in Sturbridge.
Inside the vehicle was a kidney needed for a patient at Boston Children's Hospital. Sources say troopers went looking for the kidney after an operating room nurse at the hospital contacted the State Police.
Kidneys can only last between 24-to-36 hours outside the body. Troopers sent to the tow lot found the vehicle and the kidney and brought it to the hospital.
WBZ-TV contacted Boston Children's to find out about the viability of the kidney and the transplant. In a statement the hospital said given the strict rules around organ transplant privacy, it was not able to comment.
The State Police is looking into the matter and says the kidney was delivered within a half hour of getting the call.
