A helicopter crash in northern Florida on Monday killed three people on their way to receive a heart for transplant. The helicopter—which carried heart surgeon Dr. Luis Bonilla and procurement technician David Hinds of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, as well as the pilot—left St. Augustine airport, headed towards Gainesville hospital. The patient for whom they were retrieving the transplant is back on the waiting list for a new organ.
The heart they were to pick up could not be used in another transplant because its viability expired, clinic spokesman Layne Smith said. According to Kathy Giery of Shands’ LifeQuest Organ Recovery Service, finding a new match for the heart would have taken longer than the four-hour window allowed between harvest and transplant operations.
