Troopers race against the clock to save a heart transplant patient
Jan. 16, 2024
Troopers Mitch Elzen, Mike Pevear and Quintin O’Reilly worked together to save the life of a Minnesotan man in need of a heart transplant. They met the man on Jan. 2 in Rochester. In an emergency, the clock is ticking. Working fast to save a life is all in a day's work for our Minnesota State Patrol troopers. However, in late October, a team of troopers took on a new challenge, working with Mayo Clinic Health System to get a donor heart from the Twin Cities Metro Area to Rochester in time to save a man's life.
“Our troopers never know what their next call will be, but they are ready and willing to respond to whatever is needed," said Col. Matt Langer, chief of the State Patrol. “One call to dispatch was all it took for the State Patrol team to create an excellent plan and execute it safely. It really goes to show how our troopers go above and beyond to help community members across Minnesota."
Lt. Mitch Elzen was working as the on-call supervisor that night when he received a phone call from the State Patrol dispatch: Mayo Clinic's Dr. Mauricio Villavicencio had a patient who needed a heart transplant, but the heart was more than an hour away from his hospital and the road between the heart and the hospital was under construction.
“Heart transplantation is the most time-sensitive solid organ transplant," Villavicencio said. “Due to construction on (Highway) 52 and traffic, the heart transplant outcome was at risk."
Villavicencio and his team asked the State Patrol if troopers would be willing to escort the heart with lights and sirens. It's far from a typical request for our troopers. While troopers have delivered blood donations to facilities across Minnesota, Elzen has never been asked to deliver an organ while time is ticking.
Elzen immediately wanted to help but knew it would be difficult for troopers to keep another vehicle safe while getting the organ to its destination as quickly as possible. Instead, he came up with a better idea: The medical staff could just jump in the back of a squad vehicle, and the troopers could do the driving.
Trooper Mike Pevear was just a mile or two away from where the medical staff had the donor heart in the metro area. Elzen had Pevear meet the staff at the nearest exit ramp. They hopped in, and Pevear turned on his lights and sirens to get the heart to the patient as quickly as possible. Pevear met Trooper Quintin O'Reilly in Cannon Falls, who completed the race against time and drove the medical staff and the heart to Mayo Clinic in Rochester.
Thanks to Elzen's quick thinking and the team's driving, the heart made it to the patient in time.
“The troopers helped minimize the ischemic time — the length of time the heart does not receive blood flow — resulting in an outstanding outcome for this sick patient who was in a stabilized cardiogenic shock at the Mayo Clinic," Villavicencio said. “His recovery was phenomenal."
Elzen, Pevear and O'Reilly met the patient Jan. 2 after he had recovered from his heart transplant. It was an amazing day for the troopers.
“We do a lot of stuff with the patrol and never see the real outcome at the end," Elzen said. “It was awesome just to see his face and see him smiling. We were just a small portion of that, but to help out was great."
