Night after night on flights, wearing same jeans for weeks
70 days in airports: The courier keeping global organ transplants alive
Delivering for recipients of bone marrow donor registry, Mishel Zrian sleeps in airport lounges, receives his deliveries without being forced to quarantine. He just can’t go home
In
this May 19, 2020, photo, Israeli courier, Mishel Zrian carries a bone
marrow transplant donation at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel.
Over the past two months, as air travel has ground to a halt, Zrian has
criss-crossed the Atlantic and the United States dozens of times,
sleeping in empty airports and unable to return home to see his family
in Israel, all in a race against time to deliver life-saving
transplants. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP) — Over the past two months, as air
travel ground to a halt, Mishel Zrian has crisscrossed the Atlantic and
the United States dozens of times, sleeping in empty airports and unable
to return home to see his family in Israel, all in a race against time
to deliver life-saving transplants.
Zrian is a courier hired by Israel’s Ezer Mizion bone marrow donor registry, which has had to perform logistical acrobatics to get its transplants to their destinations amid the travel disruptions caused by the pandemic. The nonprofit, as well as others involved in coordinating transplants around the world, has been tested by the shortage of flights and restrictions on travel, forced to find creative solutions or risk the health of patients.
“It’s been a struggle the entire time but at the back of our minds always is that the patient must receive this transplant or else he will die,” said Bracha Zisser, director of Ezer Mizion, the world’s largest Jewish bone marrow donor registry.
With the coronavirus upending air travel and countries shutting down borders to prevent the influx of infected travelers, airlines have been forced to drastically cut services, leaving those who still rely on commercial flights scrambling for ways around the logjam.
Timing is critical. At the start of the transplant process, the
patient’s own bone marrow is removed; if the transplant is not provided
within 72 hours, the patient could die.
Ordinarily, delivering a bone marrow transplant to a far-flung destination is simple. But according to the World Marrow Donor Association, donor registries and transplant centers around the world have been grappling with how to navigate the new rules under coronavirus restrictions.
Zrian, the nonprofit’s main US-bound courier, left Israel for what
was supposed to be a brief journey in mid-March, only to be told upon
his return that he would need to remain in quarantine for 14 days,
according to Israeli rules on all incoming travelers.
In one delivery, destined for Oslo, Zrian boarded a cargo flight to
Belgium, where another courier was set to drive the transplant 14 hours
to Norway. When pilots he encountered offered him a seat on a direct
flight to Oslo, which would save several crucial hours, he jumped at the
chance.
But with flights from Europe to Israel nearly at a standstill, Zrian had to make a roundabout journey through Frankfurt and then New York to be able to get back to Israel.
Zrian is a courier hired by Israel’s Ezer Mizion bone marrow donor registry, which has had to perform logistical acrobatics to get its transplants to their destinations amid the travel disruptions caused by the pandemic. The nonprofit, as well as others involved in coordinating transplants around the world, has been tested by the shortage of flights and restrictions on travel, forced to find creative solutions or risk the health of patients.
“It’s been a struggle the entire time but at the back of our minds always is that the patient must receive this transplant or else he will die,” said Bracha Zisser, director of Ezer Mizion, the world’s largest Jewish bone marrow donor registry.
With the coronavirus upending air travel and countries shutting down borders to prevent the influx of infected travelers, airlines have been forced to drastically cut services, leaving those who still rely on commercial flights scrambling for ways around the logjam.
For those in need of a bone
marrow transplant — usually cancer patients — finding the right DNA
match is difficult and often requires the help of international donors.
In this May 19, 2020 photo, a nurse holds
bone marrow for transplant at the Israeli Ezer Mizion bone marrow
registry, in the Israeli central city of Petah Tikvah. (AP
Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Ordinarily, delivering a bone marrow transplant to a far-flung destination is simple. But according to the World Marrow Donor Association, donor registries and transplant centers around the world have been grappling with how to navigate the new rules under coronavirus restrictions.
In one case, an Italian military plane
was called up to deliver a transplant from Turkey to a 2-year-old
patient in Rome. Germany, Italy and the US set up special exchange
points at military bases to allow couriers to drop off and pick up
transplants there rather than have them enter the country by way of
civilian airports.
As flights to Israel became scarce, Ezer
Mizion’s transplants were sent to Europe via Belgium by cargo flights
and then driven to their final destination. A daily commercial flight
out of Israel to the US has allowed the organization to continue its
deliveries, but within the confines of the chaos wrought by the
pandemic.
In this May 19, 2020 photo, Israeli
courier Mishel Zrian, right, receives bone marrow at Ben Gurion airport
near Tel Aviv, Israel. Over the past two months, as air travel has
ground to a halt, Mishel Zrian has criss-crossed the Atlantic and the
United States dozens of times, sleeping in empty airports and unable to
return home to see his family in Israel, all in a race against time to
deliver life-saving transplants. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
At that point, Ezer Mizion appealed to
the Israeli Health Ministry and the National Security Council, and
managed to secure Zrian special entry to the country, as long as he
didn’t leave the airport.
He is allowed to sleep in an airport lounge
between flights and receive his deliveries without being forced to
quarantine. With airport restaurants closed, Zrian subsists on fast food
while in the US. When he returns to Israel, he gets to have more lavish
meals at the airport lounge.
But he can’t go home.
The 47-year-old hasn’t seen his two teenage
sons in more than 70 days, and his wife was only granted one airport
visit during that time. In the US, he has been given special clearance
to enter on the grounds that he is an essential worker.
Zrian, who works for courier company Royale
International, has flown with his precious cargo more than 50 times
since mid-March, often the only passenger on the plane and landing at
deserted airports. While he sometimes sleeps at his destination, his
life moves to the beat of his deliveries. He recently spent six straight
nights on flights. He’s been wearing the same pair of jeans for weeks,
he said, washing them in hotel bathtubs when he gets the chance.
“I miss my family,” he said. “But I always carry the transplant with me and I know I am doing the right thing.”
In this May 19, 2020 photo, an Israeli
man donates bone marrow for transplant at the Israeli Ezer Mizion bone
marrow registry, in the Israeli central city of Petah Tikvah. (AP
Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
But with flights from Europe to Israel nearly at a standstill, Zrian had to make a roundabout journey through Frankfurt and then New York to be able to get back to Israel.
The drop in flights has also affected the
US, where kidneys, the most common transplant in America, are often
flown across the country and need to reach patients within 30 hours. The
longer a kidney is out of a body, the more its condition deteriorates.
Other organs typically travel on private planes.
According to Dorry Segev, a professor of
transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins University, the travel disruption is
likely leading to delays, which affects the quality of the kidney and
could prompt some patients to postpone the care they need.
“We don’t have our commercial flight
infrastructure in the United States, which kidney transplantation rides
on the back of,” he said. “It’s very chaotic.”
Rick Hasz, of the Philadelphia-based Gift of
Life Donor Program, said kidneys were still reaching their
destinations, although with different preservation techniques and
additional planning.
Zisser, of the Israeli nonprofit, said none of the dozens of deliveries made over the past two months has missed its deadline.
“The idea of saving a life was always in our hearts,” she said, “and we were willing to do everything for that.”
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