Watch: First-ever Drone Delivery Of A Donated Kidney Ends With Successful Transplant

For the first time, a drone has delivered a donated kidney to a transplant patient who had waited eight years for a donor.

The organ was carried on a short, 10 minute, 2.7 mile test flight from Baltimore’s St. Agnes Hospital to the University of Maryland medical center, and successfully transplanted a few hours after the delivery.

The drone was developed by physicians, researchers and aviation and engineering experts from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the University of Maryland and the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland.

The 44-year-old patient from Baltimore, who had spent eight years on dialysis before undergoing the transplant procedure, said:

“This whole thing is amazing,”

“Years ago, this was not something that you would think about.”

Drone could soon become the fastest, safest and least expensive method for beating the organ transplant clock.

Typically, donor organs are delivered by either chartered or commercial flights. Sometimes, busy air traffic causes delays, while occasionally, an organ is left on a plane.

Roughly 1.5% of donor organ shipments did not make it to their intended destination, and nearly 4% had an unanticipated delay of two or more hours.

There were nearly 114,000 people on waiting lists for organ transplant in 2018.