NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — "We've got to figure this out because we can't let another patient die."
That's what Jill Grandas from Tennessee Donor Services remembers about her mission on Sept. 11, 2001.
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When thousands of Americans had already lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a donor liver was ready at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville — and a 6-month-old named Kareena had hours to live in Houston.
The skies were closed. Nobody was supposed to fly.
"One of our teams was in the operating room at Vanderbilt with a pediatric donor patient whose family had agreed to give the gift of life," said Grandas said.
Grandas has worked at Tennessee Donor Services for nearly 40 years.
"The donation from that patient was a liver," she said. "And there was no way to get the liver to the child in Houston who was waiting."
"She had hours," Grandas said of Kareena's condition in Texas. "She would have died within 24 hours."
With a civilian flight off the table, Grandas went to the mail room, picked up a phone book and looked up the FAA.
"Way back then, in the blue pages of the phone book for Nashville, listed under the FAA was the Nashville tower," Grandas said.
"Were they going to allow a non-military plane in the air and that pretty readily was — was a no," Grandas said.
But the FAA never ruled out every option.
"They never said no to the opportunity that we were trying to create to get a plane in the air," Grandas said.
"The idea of what to do kept rolling along and nobody ever said this isn't possible," Grandas said.
Then they had a plan.
"We transported the liver out to Berry Field and nine Tennessee Air National Guardsmen armed themselves, got on a C-130 and took the liver to Houston for Kareena," Grandas said.
The flight made it. And so did Kareena.
Waiting for that liver at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston was Dr. John Goss.
"No matter how bad that day was, there were people that were devoted to making this transplant occur," Goss said.
"All of our people came and took care of her and no one missed a beat basically, so it's really very gratifying," Goss said.
The 6-month-old who only had hours got 25 years — and counting.
Grandas said she never met Kareena in person after the transplant, catching only a brief glimpse when Kareena was a toddler. That changed last Thursday, when she flew to Houston to meet her.
"It was just — she is such a beautiful, delightful, young lady," Grandas said.
"Once the conversation started, was I fearful or did I doubt, and I just didn't," Grandas said. "It just felt like, this was going to work. We're going to make it work. Everybody was determined to make it work."
If you'd like to register to be an organ donor, you can go to www.donatelifetn.org.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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