Solange Charles escaped from the building which trapped her when the earthquake struck on January 12 and managed to get to her truck, where she spent six days until her son, Joseph “Screwface” Charles, found her with a badly injured left leg and close to death. Screwface is a music producer living in Virginia Beach who went to Haiti to find his mom. She was airlifted from Haiti and hospitalized in West Palm Beach. You can watch this gripping story in the WVEC-TV news segment and scroll down to read about MMA’s role in providing a commercial flight for Mrs. Charles from Miami to Norfolk.

Thank God we can answer cries for help. And thank you, donors, for your financial gifts and unused miles that advance our vital cause.

This is what we do here—we help make burdens light. And while, like any organization, we have to tend to the business side of  things—finances and efficiencies, technologies and marketing, forecasting, staffing, and trends as sudden and diverse as newly-spotted stars—keeping faith with the mission is what matters most. In our case, the mission is to make sure no patient in need is denied access to specialized, medical care because of inability to pay for air transportation.

We offer charitable flights in small, private planes through our volunteer pilot program. We offer donated commercial airline tickets through our special lift program. We offer discounted air ambulance flights through a program called Air Compassion America. We match patient needs with appropriate travel resources through our National Patient Travel Center Helpline that is operational day and night. In fact, the numbers just came in from 2009 showing we served 21,003 clients. That’s a lot of veterans and children, cancer patients, burn victims, the elderly, and patients with rare disorders whose lives have been improved or saved because, as we often hear from those we serve, “I was able to get the best medical care in the world.” 

We keep the torch of mission burning in many ways. Staff members rotate pager duty so they can answer after-hour calls from patients. The mission statement is displayed in all our offices. Our CEO inspires us at special luncheons and events when he shares from the heart. Many of us post pictures of our patients on bulletin boards and share their stories with each other and through our electronic and print newsletters. Compassion is our core.

When a sense of a higher cause infuses the workplace—especially when the place is a nonprofit charity like Mercy Medical Airlift—the details of daily operation—from running the overhead to sharpening a pencil—become significant as elements of a purposeful whole.

Suzanne Rhodes is the director of public affairs at Mercy Medical Airlift in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and the author of Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, Sacred Glances and several books of poetry. She assisted in the creation of an award-winning documentary, Compassion Takes Flight

The Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic program is administered by Mercy Medical Airlift.

“I have outlived my prognosis of six months by seven and a half years because I am able to travel through your service,” said Alice.

Alice, 55, uses Mercy Medical Airlift to fly from her home in Ohio to Arkansas, where she receives treatment at the Winthrop Rockefeller Cancer Center. In 2002, after a series of physical problems and the task of caring for her mother who had suffered three strokes, she was diagnosed with nonsecretory multiple myeloma. This is a rare variation of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow. With nonsecretory multiple myeloma, the body fails to secrete a protein, and the bone marrow looks normal, allowing the myeloma to travel through the bones undetected.

Shortly before her mother’s death in 2001, Alice began to see signs of her illness. She started having shoulder pain and sought medical help. The doctor told her that all of her tests showed up fine and prescribed Vicodin. The pain grew worse.

“Eventually the pain was so bad I took eight at one time and the pain was never touched by it.”

As the pain worsened, Alice asked to see an orthopedic surgeon. For almost a year she received a cortisone shot every couple of weeks, but the pain remained.

After that, her right hand swelled up, and she went to her clinic doctor thinking she had arthritis. Her doctor laughed at the idea of arthritis and took an x-ray of her hand. By the time she arrived home, there was a message from her doctor to call immediately. She was told she had a fracture in her wrist and hand, and was instructed to see the orthopedic surgeon. Full body x-rays were taken and the doctor showed Alice the film.

“The doctor came in and shot up one X-Ray and said, you have a tumor here, here and here.”

A tumor had eaten through her wrist. Nonsecretory multiple myeloma was diagnosed.

She underwent seven months of chemotherapy and traveled to Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for stem cell transplants. This caused her to be away from home where she cared for her brother, who has Down’s Syndrome, her foster son who was severely brain damaged, and her biological son who was just starting high school. She kept in touch with her family and talked to her son three times a day.

“One of those calls he pleaded with me, saying ‘Momma, you can’t die. Please don’t die.’”

Once Alice was eligible for Medicare, she headed to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), the top research facility for myeloma internationally. She travels to UAMS every year, where they have stocked up on her stem cells in case of a relapse.

At UAMS she found out about Mercy Medical Airlift.

“The people who work for MMA are not just providing transportation,” she said. “They are the steady voice that gives you courage when you are alone and away from home.”

Alice, awaiting her son’s graduation from college this December, is still making progress with her illness, but the road is tough. She receives a small disability check and faces a foreclosure on her home. Thanks to MMA she is able to continue traveling to Arkansas for her treatment.

“They work miracles in their own way. They save lives.”

Earlier, I had spoken with Jill Adam, John’s niece, who has been actively involved in her uncle’s medical arrangements.  She explained that Hampton Roads is home to him and that he had decided to retire in Virginia Beach after his last military assignment in Norfolk.   Sherry also lives in Virginia Beach.  She had flown up to Albany so as to escort her dad home.

Jill said that this past September, John and his wife, Tessie, were in New York for a reunion of his Navy buddies when he had a stroke right in the hotel lobby.  He was taken to St. Peter’s and stabilized, then later was transferred to a rehab unit. “He was scheduled to fly home on October 24,” Jill said, “but on the Friday before, he had another stroke.”  She said Air Compassion America made it possible for him “to come home.  He couldn’t have otherwise.”  That is because ACAM saved the family thousands of dollars. “I called four other air ambulance companies,” Jill explained. “The prices were from $13,000 to “$26,000. We’re paying $5,630, and that’s for bed-to-bed. Robin couldn’t have provided any higher standard of care.”

At last the plane landed, and we watched as medical workers carefully lifted the stretcher and patient out of the cabin and into the waiting ambulance. Other than John needing oxygen, the flight was uneventful. I had a good feeling inside as I watched his daughter kiss him on the cheek and welcome him home.  That’s what Air Compassion America is all about.

The Air Compassion America program is administered by Mercy Medical Airlift.

The fourth annual Redemptive Film Festival screened the winning films on Friday night, October 16, including Compassion Takes Flight. Saturday’s Grand Awards ceremony was a semi-formal affair, and I had the honor of accepting the Redemptive Storyteller Award on stage and giving a brief acceptance speech.

Kudos to the filmmakers from 30 countries including the U.S. who were rewarded for their works of excellence and inspiration, and to the festival’s founder and director, Dr. Chris Cunningham, for promoting family-friendly films and for giving all of the festival proceeds to the International Justice Mission (www.IJM.org) to combat modern-day slavery.

Compassion Takes Flight will be screened on Friday, October 16 at Regent University in Virginia Beach. The public is invited at no charge. The award will be presented the next day at the Grand Awards Ceremony, also at Regent.

For more information, visit http://www.redemptivefilms.com/, or call/email me at 757-271-2299,  mailto:Suzanne@MercyMedicalAirlift.org.

We hope the film will serve as an important educational tool as well as an inspiration to those who watch it as it answers the questions, “Why patient travel?” and “How do patients travel?”

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 25^th 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.

We are especially pleased that our mayor, Will Sessoms, has proclaimed today in Virginia Beach as Mercy Medical Airlift Day, in recognition of both the premier and our 25th year anniversary, being celebrated this year.

Here is the text of the Proclamation:

Whereas: Utilizing a borrowed aircraft in 1972, the founders of Mercy Medical Airlift transported their first patient, filling the need for charitable  transportation for non-profit organizations; and

Whereas: Mercy Medical Airlift has continually evolved since its humble inception, developing nationwide aero-medical transportation programs, such as the   National Patient Travel Center, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, Airlift   Hope  America, Air Compassion America and Air Compassion for  Veterans, among others; and

Whereas: Over the past twenty-five years, Mercy Medical Airlift has provided free air transportation to thousands of patients and their escorts, as a public  benefit exceeding millions of dollars; and

Whereas: We salute Mercy Medical Airlift as the nation’s oldest and largest medical transport charity and congratulate them today as they premier their inspiring story in the documentary, “Compassion Takes Flight.”

Now Therefore, I, William D. Sessoms, Jr., Mayor of the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, do hereby Proclaim:

September 22, 2009
Mercy Medical Airlift Day

Below is a synopsis of the film (DVD copies are available for a donation of $25— includes S&H. Order online or send check payable to Mercy Medical Airlift and designated “film”):

Where do you go for help when you’re sick and financially stressed, when treatment is far away from home? The gift of flight is the subject of this inspiring documentary that showcases a small office in Virginia whose motto is, “No patient left behind.” Veterans, children, cancer patients, burn victims—all these and more find help when “compassion takes flight.”

 “Hope is what we’re all about,” says Jim Smith, an executive with Mercy Medical Airlift. This national charity and its various programs provide a service most Americans are unaware is even needed: patient travel. In Compassion Takes Flight, you will discover, for example, that 10 percent of our population suffers from rare diseases requiring specialized treatment far from home. Mercy Medical Airlift provides charitably donated airline tickets for such patients. Other patients in need take Angel Flights.

This moving documentary begins with a night-time call from a distressed woman to the National Patient Travel Helpline. It continues with a review of the history of aero-medical air transport—a history never before shown on film—then portrays the Angel Flight, commercial airline, air ambulance, and veterans programs.

Since the early 1970s when he first began public benefit flying, founder and CEO Ed Boyer has created a variety of programs including a national call center, an air ambulance group, and a program for military patients and families, Air Compassion for Veterans. To raise funds, Air Compassion for Veterans featured the Charlie Daniels Band at an event called Halos and Heroes, along with an honors ceremony for veterans and service members. The film’s grand and patriotic finale shows the connection between the charitable work of Mercy Medical Airlift and the generosity of America the beautiful.

We hung the banner on Monday night, September 8, announcing the 1000th patient mission, a splendid milestone for Air Compassion America. Since its inception in 2005, ACAM has saved the public nearly six million dollars and helped over 1,000 non-ambulatory patients receive discounted air ambulance flights. Held in the Mercy Medical Airlift conference room, staff members and guests enjoyed cake and refreshments while celebrating the milestone. CEO and President Ed Boyer gave a brief history of the organization’s provision of air ambulance service and recognized board members Mary Ann Chisnell and Beverly Allen as well as mission coordinator Clara Benjamin. Other MMA staff members, the Angel Flight of Virginia board of directors, and other guests joined in the celebration, as well.

The Air Compassion America program is administered by Mercy Medical Airlift.