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High-flying North Shore transplant doctor gets $200K research grant
Published: August 24, 2007
A lot of surgeons choose their specialty because they like the thrill of working in the operating room.
Surgeon Jim Allan of Marblehead has a job that's thrilling not only at the hospital but occasionally in the middle of the night when he's flying in a chartered airplane to some remote location to pick up a donated human lung.
Allan is a chest surgeon at North Shore Medical Center in Salem and one of about five surgeons on the lung transplant team for Massachusetts General Hospital. He wears a beeper 24 hours a day. When an organ donor dies and leaves a good set of lungs, Allan or one of his colleagues hops a private plane to pick it up.
Sometimes it's a smooth ride, and sometimes it's not. The surgeons will fly even when ordinary flights are grounded because it's so critical to get the lungs to the recipient in a matter of hours. They go in person because it takes a high level of expertise to evaluate the lung and make sure it's a suitable donation.
"If I bring back a pair of lungs that aren't good, the recipient will probably die," Allan said.
That's how Allan ended up one day in a small airplane somewhere over New Hampshire in heavy fog, with a fellow surgeon at his side. The pilot tried to land at an airport but missed the approach six times.
At one point the surgeons heard an alarm go off signaling the plane was too close to the ground; then they saw trees.
"We both thought we were going to die," Allan said.
The danger in these flights is no joke. In June, two surgeons and two organ procurement specialists died in a plane crash on a return trip to the University of Michigan Transplant Center with a set of donated lungs.
"We'll fly in weather that other people won't fly in," Allan said, "to try and help people."
Though this may be the most dramatic part of Allan's job, it's certainly not the only interesting thing he does.
When he's not picking up lungs, which happens about once a month, Allan may be found in the operating room at Salem Hospital performing surgeries to treat chest wounds, sweaty palms, lung cancer and just about any other chest problem that's not related to the heart. Other days, he's seeing patients in Boston.
He also works in a research laboratory in Boston where, among other things, he performs lung transplants on pigs.
Surgeon Jim Allan of Marblehead has a job that's thrilling not only at the hospital but occasionally in the middle of the night when he's flying in a chartered airplane to some remote location to pick up a donated human lung.
Allan is a chest surgeon at North Shore Medical Center in Salem and one of about five surgeons on the lung transplant team for Massachusetts General Hospital. He wears a beeper 24 hours a day. When an organ donor dies and leaves a good set of lungs, Allan or one of his colleagues hops a private plane to pick it up.
Sometimes it's a smooth ride, and sometimes it's not. The surgeons will fly even when ordinary flights are grounded because it's so critical to get the lungs to the recipient in a matter of hours. They go in person because it takes a high level of expertise to evaluate the lung and make sure it's a suitable donation.
"If I bring back a pair of lungs that aren't good, the recipient will probably die," Allan said.
That's how Allan ended up one day in a small airplane somewhere over New Hampshire in heavy fog, with a fellow surgeon at his side. The pilot tried to land at an airport but missed the approach six times.
At one point the surgeons heard an alarm go off signaling the plane was too close to the ground; then they saw trees.
"We both thought we were going to die," Allan said.
The danger in these flights is no joke. In June, two surgeons and two organ procurement specialists died in a plane crash on a return trip to the University of Michigan Transplant Center with a set of donated lungs.
"We'll fly in weather that other people won't fly in," Allan said, "to try and help people."
Though this may be the most dramatic part of Allan's job, it's certainly not the only interesting thing he does.
When he's not picking up lungs, which happens about once a month, Allan may be found in the operating room at Salem Hospital performing surgeries to treat chest wounds, sweaty palms, lung cancer and just about any other chest problem that's not related to the heart. Other days, he's seeing patients in Boston.
He also works in a research laboratory in Boston where, among other things, he performs lung transplants on pigs.
"It's more relaxing, because the family's not in the waiting room," he said.
Allan just received a research grant of $100,000 over two years to study lung cells. He's going to be looking for lung stem cells that have the potential to treat a variety of lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and asthma.
The funding is just the first step. Next is figuring out a reliable way to collect these cells from mice and pigs, then seeing if he can keep the cells alive in the laboratory. Step 3 is figuring out how to get them back into a patient's lungs permanently.
None of this is easy.
"Someone will cough them out, and that will be the end of it," he said.
Why do all this?
Allan said he likes direct patient care first and foremost, but he also wants to make a long-term contribution to the field of medicine.
"In terms of advancing patient care, you need to have the academic component to your life so that you can do not only what your teachers taught you to, you can bring your art to a higher level," Allan said. "In the absence of academic care, we wouldn't improve things for the next generation."
Dr. James Allan
Age: 43
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pa. Moved to New England to attend Harvard College. Has lived in Marblehead since 2000. He's the first doctor in his family.
Family: An 11-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. His wife has a doctorate in science education and works at the Museum of Science in Boston as the director of exhibit content.
College major: Chemistry
Advice to aspiring doctors: "Involve yourself in a medical job of some sort so that they're going into the profession without good knowledge of what you're getting into. It takes a lot of dedication and time, and you want to make sure you really like it before you put in all that effort. Work in a hospital. Work with a doctor. Do something in the medical profession, just as a part-time job."
Favorite thing about the North Shore: "I like the community, the kind of small community feeling. It's a great place to raise a family."
