(If you read this piece and something doesn’t SHIFT: break, mend, or ignite in you for GOOD, then, you may NEED to go for deliverance o!)
On September 11, 2001, Jihadists, commissioned by devious al-Qaeda terrorist Osama Dustbin Laden (where he ended, eventually), attacked four major sites in the USA, killing some three thousand people. Amid the unprecedented shutdown of all civilian U.S. airspace following that terrorist attack, a Tennessee Air National Guard C-130 Hercules cargo plane was granted emergency clearance to fly a 10-ounce donor liver from Nashville to Houston to save a dying 6 month-old baby girl named Kareena. That extraordinary mission became one of the only non-defense flights permitted in the entirely grounded American skies that morning.
Here’s the story.
“On September 10, a newborn tragically passed away in Nashville, and the family chose to donate their child’s organs. Early the next morning, a match was found in Houston for Kareena – an infant suffering from acute liver failure who had only hours to live. As doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital finished retrieving the liver to place it on a scheduled charter flight, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a historic ground stop on all civilian aircraft. Organ preservation windows meant the liver could not survive the 12-hour drive to Texas.
Jill Grandas, then a coordinator for Tennessee Donor Services, REFUSED to let the child become another casualty of the day. She pulled out a local phone book, looked up the “blue pages,” and dialed the air traffic control tower at Nashville International Airport directly. The tower supervisor took the call and escalated the emergency through federal channels. Senator Bill Frist – a former transplant surgeon turned politician – intervened to bypass bureaucratic hurdles, prompting the Tennessee Air National Guard to rapidly clear a military flight.
Nine National Guard crew members volunteered for the silent, tense flight aboard a massive C-130 Hercules – a plane built to transport tanks and heavy weaponry. Its sole payload was a small cooler containing the 10-ounce liver. Flying through eerie, empty skies with real concern about being misidentified and shot down by defensive fighter jets, the crew reached Ellington Field in Houston in a few hours. The plane landed, delivered the organ to waiting military vehicles without even shutting down its engines, and the liver was rushed to Texas Children’s Hospital where Dr. John Goss successfully completed the transplant that evening.
Kareena survived the operation and grew up healthy. Decades later, she graduated from college and pursued a law degree with a specific focus on health policy. In 2024, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Kareena finally met Jill Grandas in person for the first time to thank the woman who looked up a phone book to save her life.” – Sourced from the Internet.
QUESTIONS
1. Can that happen in Nigeria? Is any life (a baby’s, for that matter) that valuable in this country?
2. Are there medical workers in Nigeria as conscientious, dedicated and devoted like Jill Grandas?
3. Are there sensible, people-minded senators in our National Assembly like Senator Bill Frist? Ah! O ma se o! Wanting ANSWERS to questions like those is the REASON why I WRITE, daily!
If half of those who go crying on prayer mountains and keep vigils in churches and camps, every weekend, would demand for these ANSWERS, and LIVE, and WORK like Jill Grandas, Senator Bill Frist, and the 9 National Guard crew volunteers, Nigeria shall CHANGE in a jiffy!
Nigeria needs PRAYERS, and GOOD, COURAGEOUS men/women to execute/finish what the prayers start. Finding the GOOD, COURAGEOUS people is the biggest problem of Nigeria. It is! ‘Ki OLUWA sanu fun wa ni ilu yi ni o!’Selah!
DA