Giving Flite Gives Hope to Patients

In the middle of telling a story about a couple being reunited with their premature baby following Hurricane Katrina, Russ Buchanan takes an emotional pause. Not only is it a moving story, Buchanan is more than just a teller of the tale. Giving Flite, the organization he helped found, played a major role. The family was separated for eight days when the baby, along with several other preemies, was evacuated from a New Orleans hospital and flown via UAB's medical jet to Birmingham. The parents and both sets of grandparents were evacuated froma hotel near the hospital and wound up in Shreveport, La. For a while, they weren't even sure where the baby had been taken. Although relieved to learn the baby's whereabouts, the stranded parents had no immediate means of travel. Then the mother's uncle, a Birmingham doctor, called Giving Flite and shared the family's plight. That's all it took to get the ball rolling – or in this case, flying. "We sent two planes to get those folks and brought them back here," Buchanan says. "I've talked to them since then, and the baby's doing fine." The touching reunion is just one of many examples of Giving Flite's impact on people's lives. Formed three years ago, the nonprofit organization is composed of pilots and volunteers dedicated to providing air transportation free-of-charge for patients and their families who would not otherwise have access to it. "A group of us were working with another organization," Buchanan says. "They were in Florida and we were on the fringes of their territory. Four of us got together and said, 'If we're going to be involved, we want to do it right,' so we decided to start one in Alabama." To be eligible for Giving Flite's services, patients must be medically stable and have a signed doctor's release to travel on a small plane; be able to sit upright and fasten a seatbelt according to FAA regulations; and be in financial need. "We have no doctors or nurses on our flights. It's merely transportation," Buchanan says. "And if they can afford to go another way, they should go another way." Giving Flite's initial contact with a patient usually occurs through a social worker, nurse or minister. The organization's mission coordinator, Teri Scivley, then sets about qualifying the patient and finding a pilot willing to donate the time and resources to help. Pilots use their own planes, provide their own fuel and pay their own expenses. "We merely coordinate the patient with the pilot," Buchanan says. "The pilot calls the patient to coordinate the time and place. "Our idea is to take people into and out of Alabama. Our main thrust has been to take people to UAB because it's one of the best medical centers in the Southeast. We want to make it easy for people to get there. But if they have to go someplace out of Alabama, we'll take them there." To minimize the burden on its volunteers, Giving Flite networks with similar organizations through the nationwide Air Care Alliance. If a patient needs to travel an extra-long distance, they can be linked along the way with different pilots so that no one pilot travels very far. "That way, it's not too much work or expense for one pilot," Buchanan says. Giving Flite's pilots now number over 50 with room for more. Buchanan's goal is to have at least 100. "We understand from people who study that kind of thing that we're reaching maybe 8 to 10 percent of the people we could be serving," he says. Giving Flite recently put itself in a position for further growth by hiring a part-time executive director, Miranda Springer, which will allow Buchanan to concentrate on recruitment and funding. Retired since 1992, Buchanan became a pilot in 1974. "I wanted to be a pilot all my life," says the Iowa native. "I would sit at my desk in a one-room country school and draw pictures of airplanes." He is now grateful for what he considers a God-given ability to fly, and using that ability to help others is his way of giving back. "Once in a while, you meet somebody grumpy, but that's the fraction," says Buchanan of the patients and their family members he's flown. "Most people are friendly and appreciative, and nobody takes it for granted. They don't think this is an entitlement. They treat it as being a wonderful service they can take advantage of." Giving Flite will be participating in the annual Dreams On Wings event at the 117th Air Refueling Wing, Alabama Air National Guard on Saturday, May 5. Dreams On Wings gives children faced with serious illness the opportunity to fly. For more information, call (205) 349-5466.