SUMMERSTOWN, Ontario – The Cornwall Regional Airport help save lives after they facilitated the shipment of two organ donations on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
Doctors flew from the airport after collecting a heart and liver from a donor who had passed away in Cornwall.
A liver transplant recipient must receive the new organ within eight hours after it has been taken from its donor in order for it to be viable. For a heart, that timeline is just four to six hours.
A team of doctors was flown into the Cornwall Airport early Tuesday morning from Toronto by SkyCare Air Ambulance. Enterprise Airlines then delivered the doctors and their precious cargo to two patients in need in another part of the province.
Steve Small, manager for the Cornwall Regional Airport said that the airport sees this kind of service a couple of times a year.
In addition to supporting life saving services like organ donation, the Cornwall Regional Airport also hosts the Cornwall Aviation School, which according to Small has around 15 students at any given time and graduates over 100 students every year.
Earlier this year, the Cornwall Regional Airport also supported local law enforcement agencies as they conducted a search of the St. Lawrence River after they received a report of an abandoned boat in the river.
The future of the Cornwall Regional Airport is a bit up in the air (no pun intended), after the City of Cornwall announced their intention to end the management agreement they had with the Township of South Glengarry.
The city and the township fund and manage the airport jointly, but under the current agreement, the Cornwall pays 85 per cent of the airport’s costs while South Glengarry pays 15 per cent.
READ MORE: Despite uncertainty, airport commission plans for the future
City of Cornwall Councillor Justin Towndale said that despite his colleagues voting to give notice of termination of the agreement, the agreement would remain in effect for at least two years.
Some members of Cornwall City Council have expressed their hope that after the deal is terminated, a new agreement can be reached.
