Ashley and Amber were among the first children enrolled in a clinical trial to treat Congenital Lactic Acidosis, or CLA. The condition leads to the abnormal buildup of lactic acid in the blood and spinal fluid. Without specialized treatment, CLA victims usually die as teenagers.

Dr. Peter W. Stacpoole directs the study, which utilizes the drug Dichloroacetate (DCA) to help reduce acidity and which seems to improve neurologic function. The twin girls, now 15, started taking trips to the University of Florida Research Center in Gainesville when they were two years old. Through its Child Lift program, Mercy Medical Airlift has provided free air transportation for Ashley and Amber and most of the other 42 children participating in the trial since 1995.

Ashley and Amber live in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their mother, Gina, says that without the drug DCA and Mercy Medical Airlift, the twins wouldn’t be alive today. Though Ashley can’t walk or talk and both girls are in wheelchairs, they are mainstreamed ninth graders and “very happy”, according to their mom.

Since that first child lift, MMA has been contacted to provide charitable flights related to 120 studies throughout the United States.

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