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This message has been edited. Last edited by: old dino,

Let me check with someone...

Will post when I hear back.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Let me check with someone...

Will post when I hear back.

Thank you sir !

He does not have a contact, but suggested contacting https://www.angelflightwest.org

And I see that is already in your list.

Also.
https://aircharitynetwork.org/

Thanks sigmonkey ... I have both, just found aircharitynetwork right after I first posted this thread.

I don't do those flights, but have done air ambulance and medevac flights for four different operations.

If the patient or potential patient is merely doing an administrative transfer, you may find it's going to be easier on her and faster to do the trip, or most of the trip, by commercial airline, especially at today's prices (which are often very low).

A flight in a light airplane over several states can be a long, rough ride, with no ability to get up, go to the rest room, etc, and will be done at lower altitudes, exposed to more turbulence, etc.

If the destination is not served by commercial flights, then a combination of private and airline flying may be most comfortable, and warranted.

If the patient isn't ambulatory (walking), it still may be easier to go by commercial airline, rather than trying to get in and out of a light airplane.

If the patient is being treated now and has any special needs, the specifics may dictate which is best, but generally the airline will not be the best choice. Private charity carriage may not either; while the angel flight is typically an owner dedicating his time and aircraft to the transport, it's still not a medical flight with air ambulance capabilities.

An air ambulance flight is extremely expensive, even with insurance. That's particularly so for an interstate transport, but becomes necessary when the patient needs inflight care. Again the specifics dictate.

Generally in the case of an organ donation, the orogan comes to the patient, rather than the other way around. Sometimes it's predictable, but often not, as donations can occur with short notice. The exception is when a donor match is found with a living donor and operation can be scheduled in advance. In such a case, the donor still usually comes to the patient.

Another consideration is the comfort of the flight; while it is possible to get an empty leg on a corporate aircraft repositioning, for a charity network flight, most of the angel flight and other charity flights occur in light airplanes, often piston powered. These tend to have more vibration, and noise. This isn't typically a problem for most passengers, but for someone with a medical condition, especially a kidney condition, it can be. Also a concern can be unpressurized aircraft, especially for medical transport, and the lack of supplemental oxygen and pressure changes.

Seating position is also a consideration. If the patient is able to sit upright, vs. lay-flat requirements or reclining requirements, makes a difference in the options. Also the number of persons intending to travel with the patient.

In any event, don't overlook the airline option, as it maybe the most comfortable and fastest transport, as an option.

sns3guppy raises many issues to consider. He also tickled a memory for me. I thought that there used to be an organization that tried to organize rides in jets, whether on deadheads or empty seats. I can't remember the name and it was a while ago, so they may not even be around anymore, but if they are, that could be a win.

He's definitely right about the piston/light aircraft issue. I hate dealing with TSA and all that goes along with the airlines, not to mention sitting in the back. I'd rather fly myself at 150-160 knots, vibrating, between 8 and 12 thousand most of the time, even when it is more expensive than the airlines. There is something to be said for going on your own schedule. That said, Mrs. slosig would much rather deal with the airlines on a flight that is much over three hours. Most people probably would.

I used to work for an Air Ambulance service. We did transfers, not scene response. We had one jet, a Citation, that was fairly comfortable, but other than that it was twin props. They were not comfortable to board, cramped and noisy. I highly recommend commercial if at all possible. See what accommodations the airlines can offer.

quote:

Originally posted by old dino:
sns3guppy, slosig and gocatgo (another fun thread would be how we chose our handles).

Thank you all three ! Great points and information that is very useful to us. Our daughter is able to walk and travel ... just trying to line up every possible option to have on hand if needed to get from point A to B.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help. You have enlighten me to things I had not thought about.

I agree on all the eye-opening wealth of information shared. I like learning new stuff like that which increases my general knowledge. That's gold.

quote:

Originally posted by old dino:
sns3guppy, slosig and gocatgo (another fun thread would be how we chose our handles).

My login was originally supposed to be SNS2 Guppy, which is the first airplane I started building (a small spruce and fabric single-seat reverse staggerwing biplane, if anyone cares), designed long ago by Hobie Sorrell. I mistyped it as sns3guppy, which has carried over to various sites since. Hobie designed several airplanes, prefacing them with SNS, and then the number in sequence of his designs. He's better known for a couple of plans-built airplanes called the Hyperlite and the Hyperbipe, both of which are later versions of the Guppy.

I think I was here under a different name some time prior, but can't really remember, and ended up signing up with that name. Nothing too magical, maybe kind of geeky.

When I flew medevac and ambulance, I did so in light piston airplanes off dirt airstrips using flare-pots and flashlights and vehicle lights for runway lighting, as well as turboprop aircraft, and turobjet aircraft, doing emergency transport, adminstrative (non-emergency and moving people), as well as a lot of organ recovery and organ transport (hearts, kidneys, bone, etc).

The nail in the proverbial coffin for me was a week that had several kids, each dying of cancer, and one young adult I flew home to pass away. I hit my limit and went back to firefighting. It's always the kids.

The one medical flight that I still see when I close my eyes, decades later, was a boy who drowned. I got called out of a movie for the flight, one night. He was Hopi, and had to be back on the reservation and interred by sunrise, by their tradition. It was a calm night, full moon, and when I glanced over my shoulder at the gurney at a body bag with a lump that only covered half the gurney, that image is as clear and sorrowful to me today as it was then, and it still chokes me up.

I flew severe burn victims, horrific multi-casualty vehicle pile up victims, gunshots, cancer, a guy who took a chainsaw to the face, and even patients with flies and patients spraying fluids. The ones that haunt, and the ones that finally led to that "can't-take-it-anymore" moment, were the kids. That's always been true for everyone I've known in emergency services, too.

Organ transplants are flights of hope. I wish you, and your family the best in this endeavor. It's the positive side of the coin. God bless you, and your family.

Guppy, a Russian doctor I knew once said that every physician has his or her own private cemetery--the cases that haunt us because despite (or sometimes because of) everything we could do, the patient died.
Sounds like you have yours too.

God bless, and merry Christmas.

I started a new thread where others can share how they chose their Sig Forum handle.

Would be fun to hear the stories.

Sig Forum Handle Stories

Old Dino,

Apologies, as that wasn't the intent. The conversation about the ghosts of ambulance flights (etc) was a sidebar unrelated to your question; the thread prompted the thoughts. Those events don't reflect on your daughter. They're more the thoughts of someone who's done a lot of ambulance and medevac work, and why I don't do it any more.

Organ transplantation is very much the positive end of the stick. It's the very definition of hope. The nature of my own experiences was very much the opposite side of the coin, a polar opposite from your present state.

For every recipient, there is a donor, and in many cases, the donor is someone's loss, while the organ is someone's gain. On the surface, it seems hope on one side, despair on the other, but I'd submit that many times, it's hope for both.

Some years ago I flew a Learjet to a rural area, assigned to pick up lab samples to bring back for a cross-match. If it went well, a second team would go out after, to pick up an organ. A recipient lay waiting. Normally we carried a medical team, but this day it was just two of us in the lear. I went to the hospital to pick up the samples.

What I wasn't told when I was sent to a particular room, was that the donor was in that room, with all his family, and when I entered, they knew why I'd come. I felt terrible, arriving as they gathered around the bed of their loved one, soon to pass, and I there, to take. That was my view.

It wasn't the view of the family of the donor. Their loved one concluded his existence, but they saw this opportunity to donate the organs as a way of sharing, of continuing his life in someone else. A phoenix from the ash, if you will. To them, a donation was also hope, a silver lining in their own tragedy that helped them have something positive in the moment.

What I learned in that room, an epiphany, was that tragedy was my perception and not theirs. I carry my own donor card, and would hope that someone could use any part of me. To bring an organ or a patient is to share some small part of a great gift between two people that raises both, and of the many things I've done, perhaps the single most meaningful.

If my job had been nothing but transplant flights, I'd perhaps still be doing it today.