In a story that only those who live in the old colonial cities of America’s east will understand, a surgeon ran about a mile to and from a hospital to pick up a liver for his patient after a courier’s route was blocked not only by Philadelphia’s strange, organic road system, but thousands of marathon runners.
66-year-old Charles Rowe was waiting on an operating table at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with his surgeon Adam Bodzin. He was slated for a liver transplant that day to save his life from complications due to hepatitis C. Time ticked by until Rowe was surprised to hear that Bodzin was going out the door to get the liver himself, reports the Philadelphia Enquirer.
Meanwhile, an out-of-town van driver for Philly-based Gift of Life Donor Program was having trouble negotiating the one-way streets, half-blocks, and diagonals of Philadelphia’s city center, when it became clear that the day's marathon event would be the last straw.
Clad in sneakers and teal scrubs, Bodzin weaved his way at a full run from the hospital through the stream of runners, reaching the driver. He grabbed the sealed container with the liver on ice, zigzagged back the same way, earning what must have been more than a few curious stares, before hitching a ride with the police back to the hospital on the other side of the marathon route.
Thanks to Bodzin’s quick thinking, they managed to transplant the liver successfully, an hour after the time when a liver begins to deteriorate. Happily, Rowe made a full recovery and left the hospital 6 days later.
Rowe said he heard the full story after he woke up from the surgery, and told the surgeon he was a hero.