02/13/2026
Wherever the journey leads, LifePort Kidney Transporter is there when you need it most. 🛣️
We love hearing stories like this one from our friends at HonorBridge about the unwavering dedication OPO staff have to making a life-saving transplant happen.
LifePort Kidney Transporter kept the kidney safe perfusing for 18 hours while on its wild adventure to its recipient.
A huge thank you to the entire team at Delta Air Lines for helping make sure this kidney got safely to its recipient despite the weather. ✈️
Have a story of a transport journey you had with LKT? Share below!
🌨️ Above and beyond—no matter the weather.
During one of the last once-in-a-generation snowstorms, HonorBridge recovered what transplant teams call a perfect-match kidney—one that could mean fewer medications and a better quality of life for the recipient. Unfortunately, the recipient was in South Carolina and the kidney was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As with any transplant, timing was critical. With roads shut down and every courier service grounding travel due to unsafe conditions, it looked like the gift might not make it in time.
That’s when Surgical Organ Recovery Professional Jon Sidell stepped in.
“I drove my Fiat 13.8 miles from my home in Durham to Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), rented a Jeep Rubicon at 11:45 p.m., and headed to Winston-Salem to retrieve the kidney,” said Jon.
Jon navigated treacherous back roads covered in 14 inches of snow, passing abandoned and overturned cars along the way. Once the kidney was secured, Jon headed back toward RDU, only to find himself stuck behind a line of North Carolina DOT plow trucks crawling along at five miles per hour. As his 5:15 a.m. flight deadline closed in, Jon pulled up beside a DOT worker and rolled down his window.
“I told him I had a kidney for transplant and needed to get around the plows,” Jon said. “He told me I was crazy, but then he radioed the trucks and cleared a path so I could pass.”
To the shock of every TSA agent at RDU, he arrived in the early morning hours, the kidney safely in-tow. Jon says that “all the stars aligned perfectly” on his connecting flight to Atlanta, with no cancellations or delays, despite the weather.
“On my last flight, I told the pilot that I was carrying a kidney so he could call the tower and give us a medivac designation and fly with priority status,” said Jon. “As it turns out, the pilot’s best friend had just received a liver transplant two months earlier. We went straight from the gate to the runway and passed probably 10 or 15 planes that were all de-icing and waiting in line. We were supposed to land at the South Carolina airport at 9:30 a.m., but we arrived half an hour early.”
Later that morning, the waiting recipient in South Carolina received their “perfect match,” proving that even in an unprecedented winter storm, no obstacle is too great for HonorBridge when it comes to honoring the gift and saving a life.
This is HonorBridge. Together. Saving Lives.
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