Angel Flight Passengers Attend Premier of Compassion Takes Flight
A rare disease can dim the human spark but in the case of three Chesapeake, Virginia brothers suffering from RP, or retinitis pigmentosa, the smiles are radiant. Ryan, 20, Justin, 18, and Jordan, 14, take Angel Flights every two years to Harvard Medical Center to be treated for a genetic eye disorder that gradually leads to loss of vision. The boys receive experimental treatment from the nation’s leading RP specialist, Dr. Elliott Berson.
They came with their dad, Bobby, to Virginia Beach on September 22 to attend the evening premier of the new documentary, Mercy Medical Airlift: Compassion Takes Flight. Mercy Medical Airlift is the parent organization of Angel Flight and the other charitable air transportation programs operated out of the Virginia Beach headquarters where the film was screened to an audience of some 30 people.
Besides the three handsome young Angel Flight passengers, other notable guests were Dr. and Mrs. Donald Nuss. Dr. Nuss is interviewed in the film and explains, in a moving segment, how he developed a procedure to correct pectus excavatum, or “sunken-in chest.” Angel Flight transports many patients to Children’s Hospital of the Kings’ Daughters in Norfolk to be treated by the internationally-renowned pediatric surgeon.
Dewayne Rudd, president of Cross and Flag Productions, also attended the premier of the film he and his nonprofit group created over a period of over eight months. Rudd is a UPS pilot from Kentucky who donated Compassion Takes Flight as a gift to Mercy Medical Airlift.
Oren Liebermann, a reporter with a local NBC affiliate, WAVY-10, covered the event and arranged to have it broadcast later on the evening news.
To commemorate the documentary and recognize MMA’s 25th anniversary, being celebrated this year, Mayor Will Sessoms signed a proclamation designating September 22 as “Mercy Medical Airlift Day” in Virginia Beach. After reading the proclamation aloud to the audience, the deputy city manager, Suzy Walston, presented the document to Ed Boyer, Mercy Medical’s president and CEO.
Highlights from the hour-long film included a segment on aero-medical history, Tangier Island, and interviews with patients, pilots, staff members, and coverage of the fundraiser for the veterans program, Halos and Heroes with Charlie Daniels. Compassion Takes Flight is being shown on hundreds of public, educational and government access TV channels throughout the United States, including stations in Hampton, Norfolk, and Gloucester.
