On Thursday night, Jon Mckinnerney was leaving Sonic when he saw a white Nissan truck pull off of 64th Street and Frankford Avenue. He said two boxes fell out from the bed of the truck. After retrieving the boxes, he noticed them labeled “Human Tissue”.
Mckinnerney said he called LifeGift to return the boxes.
“The courier that carried the boxes was very upset that we didn’t have the third box which was blood and they said without the blood the organs would not be usable,” Mckinnerney said.
He also said, “At that time we said we would help them look and we looked up and down the road here on Frankford looking for the third box.”
He added that he could not speak for LifeGift but they looked for the third box until about midnight.
“This is life saving stuff that needs to be handled better. I surely hope that my mother’s organ is not handled in this care. Whether it be in the back of a pick up truck- who knows if it’s damaged and who knows if the cooler got damaged it was in. It’s just a bad situation,” Mckinnerney said.
LifeGate released the following statement concerning the incident:
LifeGift appreciates the action of the good Samaritan that took responsibility and contacted us about this incident. We would like to clarify that the courier was transporting tissue samples and not organs. Upon learning of the situation, LifeGift immediately took every action possible to locate the packages. As result of our rapid response, the donated gifts will be used to save the lives of others.
As a matter of standard practice, LifeGift contracts with commercial bio-specimen couriers. This courier failed to meet expectations and we will no longer be contracting with them.
This is an unfortunate and extraordinarily rare situation.
It is important to note that the confidentiality of the donor was maintained throughout the incident and subsequent investigation.
LifeGift works tirelessly day in and day out to offer hope to others through lifesaving organ and tissue donation.
