Surgeon sprints to get liver stuck in marathon traffic — and gives life-saving surgery

A transplant surgeon went to great lengths to ensure that his patient would be able to get their new liver.

In November, Adam Bodzin, a transplant surgeon and surgical director at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, found out at midnight that a liver was ready in New York and planned to perform the surgery that day, he told McClatchy News.

The transplant truck was en route from New York but got stuck in Philadelphia Marathon traffic, Bodzin said.

“The patient needed this organ and I was getting a little bit worried with the amount of time we were waiting for the liver. I knew he wouldn’t be able to get across and that’s when I took off and got it,” Bodzin said.

That’s when Bodzin took matters into his own hands.

The surgeon raced a little over half a mile to the transplant truck and retrieved the organ, walking through the marathon course with a box.

“I would hope my partners and all the people we train would all do the same,” Bodzin said.

The organ recipient was Charles Rowe, 66, who had been “waiting 15 months for a transplant, which he needed due to complications from hepatitis C,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bodzin said even though the surgery was delayed an hour and a half, it was a success.

“He really couldn’t have done any better. He went home on his sixth day post-op and has been doing well,” he said.

The surgeon doesn’t know why the driver wasn’t able to get around traffic while in transport.

“I don’t really know. It could’ve been multiple reasons, like he wasn’t from here,” he said.

Even after his actions, Bodzin doesn’t want any accolades.

“I maybe told one or two people. My wife is an OBGYN and she told her labor and delivery nurse who ended up sending out an internal email,” he said.

Bodzin, who during his first week of training witnessed a life-saving liver transplant and fell in love with the field, wants people to think more about being a donor.

He told McClatchy News that he wants to stress the importance of being a donor and for people to consider live donation.

“Live donation as far as kidneys go, one kidney can save someone’s life. A part of your liver can save a child, save an adult. There’s just not enough organs going around for everybody,” he said.