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| Vol. 22, No. 4 |
| March 1, 2000 |
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Volunteer Pilots Bring Patients to Texas Medical Center by ROGER WIDMEYER Texas Medical Center News
When over 1,000 private pilots decide to make a difference, they do just that. Absorbing all costs themselves, the pilots who make up the AirLifeLine force, have flown over 8 million miles transporting patients to hospitals and clinics. The patients - typically from rural areas and small cities and towns - require a level of medical care found in academic medical centers such as the Texas Medical Center. Unable to afford the travel costs themselves, patients usually find out about AirLifeLine from either the referring hospital or physicians or one of the Texas Medical Center hospitals to which they have been referred. "AirLifeLine has a fairly short history to it, especially considering the size of our volunteer pilot force," says director Thomas McCain. Founded in 1978 by Sacramento, Calif., businessman and pilot Tom Goodwin, the program was initially established to ensure delivery of time-critical medical cargo. "In 1984, the service was expanded to provide air travel to ambulatory patients," says McCain, a former stock broker on Wall Street. "We have limitations - mainly the size of the planes - which prohibit us transporting patients on gurneys. And the pilots are not medically trained, so the patient needs to be relatively stable. "But a car ride from, say, Laredo to Houston, can be a very long trip for someone who is ill. The two- or three-hour flight can really be a help," says McCain. AirLifeLine operates every day of the year, and many of the flights are in emergency situations, such as transplant operations. Typically, flights are arranged a week or two ahead of time, and many of the flights are relays in which one pilot flies the patient the first leg of the trip and another pilot meets them at the halfway point and completes the journey. Patients are asked to secure their own transportation to and from the airports. The hospital destination must be within 1,000 miles of the patient's home. Most of the AirLifeLine planes are four-seater, single engine aircraft. Perhaps 10 or 15 are twin-engine planes. For the most part, AirLifeLine pilots hangar their planes at small airports, so patient and accompanying family member are spared the stress of a large international airport. "Our pilots come from many walks of life - they own their own business, there are doctors, lawyers, bankers, engineers," says McCain. "They all like to fly and they all really like helping people in need." One of those volunteer pilots is James Moser who flies out of Hooks Memorial Airport in far northwest Harris County. Moser is also regional coordinator for AirLifeLine, working out flight details for pilots and patients in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana. "We've got 91 active pilots in this region," says Moser. "All but a couple of them own their own plane. There's a trick sometimes to working it all out, but I can usually find someone pretty quickly." On this day, Moser was setting up a pilot and family in Mississippi for a flight to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Other recent flights have brought patients to Shriners Hospital, TIRR, Memorial Hermann Hospital, The Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital. "This isn't something you can just hitch a ride to, it takes time to set up everything, especially the relay flights," says Moser. "And we also have a standby mode, in the case of a kidney transplant for instance." How well do ill people tolerate a flight in a light aircraft? "Most of our patients enjoy the experience. For some of them, it's their very first flight. Some are apprehensive of course, but the pilots are very good at keeping them informed. If we fly over a refinery, for instance, I'll be sure to tell them that there's some hot air so we'll be taking a little bump," says Moser. AirLifeLine's central office is still in Sacramento, but the service is in all states, including Alaska. AirLifeLine relies on the charity of its pilots and the donations from businesses, foundations and individuals. In 1997, AirLifeLine received a $1 million four-year grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities. Tom McCain has recently visited the Texas Medical Center, introducing AirLifeLine to a few people not already familiar with its service and mission. "The best medical care available is right here, and there are a lot of people who will greatly benefit from that care. We're looking forward to bringing them here," he says. AirLifeLine may be contacted toll-free at 1-877-AIRLIFE, 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. pacific standard time. Interested in supporting AirLifeLine? Call that same phone number or look at the Web site, www.airlifeline.org.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/03_01_00/page_03.html |
