University of Maryland Teams Honored for First Organ Transplant by Drone

Helicopter Association International (HAI)

Helicopter Association International (HAI) announced the University of Maryland UAS Test Site Team, led by director Matt Scassero, and University of Maryland Medical Center’s Dr. Joseph Scalea are the 2021 recipients of the association’s Golden Hour Award. The award recognizes the efforts of an individual, group, or organization that, through a particular activity or contributions over time, has advanced the use of helicopters or UAS aircraft in the vital mission of air medical transport.

On the night of Apr. 19, 2019, 44-year-old nursing assistant Trina Glispy waited at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), prepped for kidney transplant surgery. In her eighth year of dialysis for kidney failure, she had begun to lose hope. Destiny had another plan.

When Glispy learned she had a match, she was offered a very special opportunity — the kidney could be delivered to the hospital by drone, a medical first that would pave the…