Almost nothing in the medical world is simple, and the organ transplant industry is no exception. Much to the chagrin of the 40,000+ organ transplant recipients each year, the intricacies required can lead to errors, and errors can lead to death. For the last 8 years, Sim Shain and his team at ParaFlight and their organ transport division, aptly named Organflights.com, have worked tirelessly to save lives and deliver invaluable organs to recipients in need. With innumerable moving parts, regulations, personnel, procedures and measurements, it seems impossible to simplify an organ transplant system into an easy mnemonic like A, B, and C. But at the heart of ParaFlight’s work is Attention to detail, a Belief in Making a Difference, and Compassion with a purpose.
A is for Attention to detail
It will come as no surprise that organ transplant requires specific and urgent transportation planning. The team at ParaFlight works night and day to arrange air transport for the organs to ensure that every matched organ has transportation to its new recipient, and the system is considerably more complicated than surfing the major travel sites to find the best deals. Attention to detail is crucial because from the time of the first incision on the donor patient, a ticking clock starts on the viability of the organ, ranging anywhere from 4-24 hours. While Organflight professionals are well experienced and trained in Transmedics and Paragonix transplant systems, the race is always on to get the lifesaving organ from one patient to another. A misstep in planning or implementation could have heartbreaking results, but ParaFlight attends carefully to each detail of the transport to ensure success. “We built a team and we work hard. I just want to make sure everything runs perfectly, and that’s what we do.”
Regardless of time of day, the team at ParaFlight secures an available aircraft, acquires transportation for the organ and its team to get to the aircraft, and recruits the travel team complete with pilot, flight crew, surgeons, and transplant team, all in a matter of hours. Founder of ParaFlight, Sim Shain, notes that they are communicating the progress to the hospital staff and recipients each step of the way. “We’ll let them know when the donor is in the operating room, when they’ve begun the incision, when the heart is out, and we’ll clock each time for them.” ParaFlight orchestrates each detail and every turn in the process so that the patient receiving the organ can finally relax and prepare for their life to get back on track.
ParaFlight uses air transport and critical attention to detail for the effective delivery of lifesaving organs. It’s their mission, their purpose, and their “A” to what defines them.
B is for Belief in making a difference
Sim Shain learned early in his life about the power of saving a life, and the effect that life might have on the world. He has since applied the principle into the core belief system of his company. Each individual at ParaFlight, each medic, pilot, surgeon, flight crew member, driver, or doctor believes in making a difference and saving lives. Sim Shain says it’s as simple as that: “that became my mission, that became my drive. There’s really not much else that I want to do because I just want to be able to save lives.”
The belief and drive to make a difference keeps the ParaFlight teams moving through the sleepless nights and the urgent procedures. They know that at the end of each long voyage is a patient who has been on the organ waiting list a number of years, just waiting for their turn. The transplant teams are literally delivering a new lease on life to patients across the country. They are making a difference, and they know their patients will change the world too.
Without the solid belief in making a difference, in saving a life, or changing the world, ParaFlight would have never taken off. They needed the attention to detail and the belief that something life-changing could derive from their efforts. Sim and his team had their belief all along, and their “B” is going to change the world.
C is for Compassion with a purpose
The final easy letter resounds both within and beyond the company: Compassion. First, it takes a specific brand of selflessness to drop everything to help someone in need. Sim saw his dad do it as an EMT. Sim demonstrated that same selflessness as he worked as an EMT and paramedic at the New York City sites of the 9/11 attacks. Now, ParaFlight’s entire crew demonstrates compassion as they answer the alerts that an organ has been procured, as they plan the finicky details, and as they travel across the country, pulled away from their families to help maintain someone else’s world.
Not only does Sim Shain have compassion for the hundreds of patients he helps each year, but for his own team. He understands the sacrifices they make to save the world: the loss of sleep, canceled plans, and families left waiting. To demonstrate his appreciation for his team’s efforts, Sim works to treat everyone involved in the transplant process like the celebrities they are. At every opportunity, Sim provides comfort for his team within their vehicles to the airport, the aircraft themselves, and the specialized meals provided on board.
In this world, compassion is generally a rare quality. Even rarer is compassion with a purpose, where the sympathy for the suffering of others is the driving force for someone to take action and be a part of the solution to the problem. The team at ParaFlight is determined to help organ transplant recipients in whatever method possible. “For anybody who needs an aircraft for a transplant, we’re definitely going to do everything that we can to help them get it.” Sim Shain and his team use their medical experience, their belief in a better world, and their compassion for human condition to embrace a problem and come up with the plane, equipment, transportation, and personnel to find the answers and save as many lives as possible.
It’s easy as 1, 2, 3
No part of the organ transplant process is simple. Each mission takes tremendous planning and perseverance within a condensed time, and the transplant teams achieve the impossible with each journey that they bring their patients more time on the earth. However, ParaFlight puts the organ recipients at ease so that everyone can focus on healing. With the ParaFlight team working the organ transport orchestration, patients across the country can count on them knowing their A-B-Cs with their Attention to detail, Belief in making a difference, and Compassion with a purpose.
