Ever misplaced something important? This should put it in perspective.
Most people think that the worst thing you can end up sitting next to on a long-haul flight is a crying baby, but after today’s news, we might all have to revise that opinion.
Because now the list of options apparently includes a human heart.
Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Seattle to Dallas were shocked to learn that their flight had to turn around after a human heart had been discovered on board.
The plane had been in the air for three hours when the announcement was made.
The human heart had been onboard for a previous flight to California, where it was supposed to have been unloaded and used for medical purposes.
The heart had not been designated for any one specific patient, rather, a functioning valve was set to be removed from the heart and stored for future use.
The incident has been described by a doctor in the Seattle Times newspaper as a “horrific story of gross negligence”.
Human hearts can typically last between four and six hours in storage before no longer being viable for transplant, which means that the heart in question might no longer be usable.
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