Angel Flight NE Arranges Timely Medical Flight for Haverhill Woman with Rare Illness

Two weeks after celebrating her successful finish of the 2018 Boston Marathon Kim Dahn was stricken with debilitating stomach pain, ongoing and acute discomfort not readily recognized by her doctors. It turns out she suffers from a rare genetic condition that caused her lower intestinal tract to compress and twist. The condition is called superior mesenteric artery syndrome.

Even after over 60 trips to the emergency department and multiple surgeries, her long-term outlook looked bleak until she discovered the possible availability of an international expert. The person who regularly treats the condition through a complicated surgical procedure was expected to visit with another physician expert at a hospital in remote western Virginia for just three days in February. The problem for Kim was getting there and back again since the closest commercial airport was a 40-minute car ride in Roanoke, the weather along the northeast corridor was iffy and she knew she couldn’t stand waiting in airport security lines, particularly post-surgery.

Haverhill couple Kim and her husband David turned to Angel Flight NE, a charity headquartered at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, which matches volunteer pilots from across the country with patients in need of medical transport. The service is free.

David Dahn was a recent guest on WHAV’s “Win for Breakfast” show along with Jonathan Campbell of Angel Flight. The pair explained how the medical transport service was able to get Kim to her surgical appointment and, more importantly, home to complete her recovery in less than half the time of a commercial flight.

“We could get there. The logistics weren’t too bad getting down, but coming back after surgery was going to be very difficult because there a 40-minute drive when you are post-surgery, trauma and so forth. So, we would we have had to wait not only in the car but at the airport and we would have had go through security lines. There were layovers so what would have been a 10-hour flight we didn’t think it was feasible,” Dahn said.

Campbell, a retired air traffic controller who “knows how to talk to pilots,” said he has nearly 400 pilots, all instrument rated with over 500 hours of flying time prepared who have access to a variety of aircraft ready to volunteer their time and planes to provide transportation, often at very short notice. He wasn’t put off when David Dahn inquired shortly before the trip was to take place.

“It was a challenge because, as David touched upon, there were weather issues, there was a relatively short amount of time to arrange things but when he first contacted us we got onto the task at hand and sent our emailed to a lot of our pilots who have longer distance airplanes who can make this trip, hopefully with non-stop. We had a great response from our pilots,” Campbell said.

Once the trip dates were set, Kim and David headed to Lawrence Municipal Airport. Pilots, though, are always in charge of trip details because safety is the first priority, Campbell said. Due to a winter storm front, David and Kim and their pilot ended up overnighting in a hotel in Philadelphia so their trip down to Virginia was longer than anticipated.

Fortunately, the trip home was a breeze and also was arranged on short notice once Kim’s doctors cleared her to leave the hospital following her successful surgery.

Campbell said that in addition to his email list of volunteer pilots from around the country, Angel Flight also works with JetBlue and Cape Air when it makes sense to send a client on a commercial flight. He also noted patients must be in stable condition because Angel Flight doesn’t provide nursing care. If someone makes an inquiring for a patient who needs medical monitoring, Campbell said he refers them to an air ambulance service.

With travel arrangements in another’s hand,