Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/18/italian-police-use-a-lamborghini-to-deliver-a-donated-kidney-300-miles-in-two-hours.html
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In all sincerity, rather surprised they didn’t crash. I am guessing the driver actually had training on how to drive it.
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C’mon… that’s not a refrigerated trunk- that’s an esky!
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I guess a helicopter wasn’t available.
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Kind of brings up the subject of whether or not delivering a life-saving kidney is worth two hours of extremely risky driving that could have killed bystanders as well as the driver.
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Many years ago, I sat in a car driven by an Italian police driver, I can tell that yes, they are trained.
He was not on duty, so he restrained himself. Otherwise I would have added an ‘h’ to the first verb above.
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might not have been facilities at the hospital to land
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Not exactly breaking news… (it’s happened two weeks ago). Moreover, as many in Italy have remarked, most private planes would have accomplished the same feat more quickly and more safely, and most pilots would have been glad to do so.
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Not with multiple camera crews, a chase vehicle and production values like that!
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All things considered, and being well aware of the risks of reckless driving, I’ll take the Lamborghinification of police over the militarization of police any day.
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The big news here is that a Lamborghini has a trunk!
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[translated from the Italian]
"What's that--? There's no helicopter available...? I'll have to use whatever other non-helicopter transportation is available to me...? Are you _sure_? :sigh: Well, if there really is no helicopter available, I suppose I'll just have to drive the police Lamborghini there..."
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The Italian guy is on the left.
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That was my takeaway too… the fact that the car had a surprising spacious trunk; not the kidneys. The kidneys were not my takeaway; and, if they were, I’d want to know why it took two hours for them to be delivered.
@newbrain Thank you for a Maniacal Cackle Out Loud. 
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If I learned anything from Cannonball Run, it’s that an ambulance is faster than a Lamborghini.
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Technically, it’s a “frunk” - a front trunk - since the Huracan is mid-rear engined.
Also, much like other forms of air travel, saying that a helicopter would have been faster might be neglecting the additional time of getting the heart to the helicopter and getting it from the helicopter to the OR.
As well as the expense, which is probably more than 10x compared to the car.
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Some details, from Italian online papers and news sites (translation & summarizing are mine):
- More than 60% of this kind of transportation is via private flights or, in some particular cases, state flights organized by the “Presidenza del Consiglio”, with the help of Italian Air Force.
- For most of the rest (organs whit a longer survival time) the ‘118’, the Italian global ambulance service, organize the trip by cars.
- This was an exceptional case, for a live to live donation in a “crossover” transplant, where two receivers get each other’s partner’s kidney. Only two of these transplants have been done in 2020.
- In 2018, the Huracan was used 41 times for organs, 10 times for blood and plasma, and 19 times for life saving meds, serum or vaccines/antidotes.
- As said in the article, the Lambo was modified to safely transport and refrigerate organs, at the time of its delivery to the Polizia.
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If your kidney fails, you die.
If it’s that bad, you’d only survive by dialysis, I was on that for 10 weeks last year, three sessions a week (each 5-6 hours).
If a kidney that matches becomes available, you want it before it goes bad.
Again, this is why people should sign up for organ donation. It won’t do you any good at that point, but it may keep someone alive. At the very least it may make someone’s life way more liveable.
There is always risk, but as exciting as this sounds, I bet they were prepared to do this with minimum impact.
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Sounds like one of those “A lambo would be super fun. How can we convince the public that we need one, and should be able to speed all the time in it?” kind of deals.
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Well, probably that was a factor in play.
It must be said that, to my knowledge (I’m sure about the previous one, a Gallardo), the car was donated and not bought.
It’s a good advertising stunt for Lamborghini.
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