Seven Nebraska patrolmen helped relay a hard-to-find drug 540 miles from Omaha-based University of Nebraska Medical Center to a hospital in Colorado after stormy weather prevented the medication from being flown to its destination, according to a KWBE report.
Aurora-based Children's Hospital Colorado requested a rare medication from Nebraska Medicine late on the evening of May 29. The medication treats amoeba-related infections, which are caused by parasites.
The weather in eastern Nebraska was too rough for the hospital to fly the medication, so hospital officials called the Nebraska State Patrol for help.
Patrol Lt. Matt Sutter called for a transportation relay involving seven state troopers and an airplane pilot. The relay began in Omaha at 10:15 p.m. May 29, where one patrolman picked up the medication from Nebraska Medicine and drove west to hand off the package to the next trooper. Similar handoffs occurred until weather conditions improved. When the relay reached western Nebraska, a state trooper passed the medication to an airplane pilot who flew the drug to a Colorado airport.
The medication arrived at Children's Hospital Colorado early the morning of May 30. The transport took about five hours from when the first trooper started the relay.
Mr. Sutter said the Nebraska State Patrol was glad it could help with the delivery, emphasizing it was a full team effort.
"Everybody we contacted understood the urgency," Mr. Sutter told KWBE. "It was truly all hands on deck."
The patient at the Colorado hospital's condition is unknown. The Children's Hospital of Colorado said it was unable to comment because of patient privacy rules.