Coping with a medical condition or serious illness can be an overwhelming experience for a patient, a loved one, or a caregiver. It becomes particularly formidable when an individual learns that essential medical care, trial, or treatment is located at a hospital or specialized medical center far from home. Adding to the challenges of logistics, are people who live in rural or isolated areas with limited travel options and those with limited financial resources.
Under these circumstances, charitable non-emergency air medical transport presents as a vital and compassionate support for patients and their families. By providing an efficient, prompt, and safe means of travel to necessary therapeutic care, medical air transport addresses logistical challenges and offers substantial emotional support that helps alleviate a patient’s stress level and concerns associated with lengthy, uncomfortable automobile rides. It circumvents the complexities of navigating through a busy airport with the possible delays sometimes encountered with commercial air travel.
Charitable medical air transport provides transportation to people in need and allows patients and their families the ability to concentrate on medical care and treatment rather than travel logistics. It provides free transport for those who cannot afford or are physically unable to fly commercially. It offers compassionate assistance to patients and their loved ones and provides humanitarian aid to those in need. These charitable services rely on volunteer pilots who donate their time and their own aircraft to conduct the flights.
One of the most well-known patient airlift programs in the United States is PALS SkyHope (Patient Airlift Services). In its 15th year of operations, PALS SkyHope is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization located at Republic Airport (FRG) on Long Island that arranges free air transportation for individuals who need to travel for medical treatment, diagnosis, or follow-up care at out-of-reach locations, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. These flights occur in privately owned, general aviation aircraft rather than air ambulances. Thus, patients must be able to get into the airplane without a medical assistant or nurse and be well enough for the flight. It is also required that patients have waivers and releases from their physicians indicating that their condition allows them to fly safely.
Founded in 2010, Patient Airlift Services SkyHope (formerly solely named PALS) was founded by a small group of volunteer pilots who loved to fly and were compelled to start their own patient airlift service using their skills and resources to provide people with safe, free air transport to medical treatments. PALS began small, with 300 flights in its first year. Since its inception, that number has grown to 3,000 flights a year. In the course of 15 years, PALS has completed 34,000 free flights, assisting over 4,000 families with 6.5 million volunteer miles flown by 560 PALS SkyHope volunteer pilots.Aircraft used by PALS pilots are typically non-pressurized, single-engine, 4-6 seaters. Volunteer pilots bear the entire cost of each medical flight, including fuel, landing and ramp fees, and other related expenses. Patients are not responsible for any transportation costs outside of their own arrangements for local ground transport to departure and destination locations.
As a collaborative organization, PALS SkyHope provides aviation resources to children and adults in need or from every state along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida and all states east of the Mississippi River. As part of the AirCare Alliance (a non-profit public service organization representing a nationwide network of volunteer pilot groups, such as Angel Flight, Mercy Flight and others), PALS SkyHope and other organizations in the alliance may refer to each other when flight requests are received outside of the geographical region they serve.
The PALS for Patriots program provides free air transportation for veterans, connecting them and their families to specialized medical treatment, adaptive sports, service dog organizations, and moral boosting opportunities that advance the healing process. By eliminating transportation as a barrier, veterans can access the services they need and deserve, including programs that support post-traumatic growth, group therapy, and caregiver retreats.
In partnership with MLB, PALS SkyHope receives tickets to baseball games throughout the summer and transports veterans and military personnel to stadiums such as Fenway and Citifield, where they are often brought onto the field and applauded for their service. The fact that a person with a private plane has chosen to fly them to a game, sometimes putting them up at a hotel or taking them out to dinner, is not only uplifting to veterans who feel isolated or depressed but restorative in mind, body, and spirit.
PALS SkyHope maintains a coordination center to connect people to pilots. Its staff is dedicated to providing every passenger with the best experience along their journey. Using specialized software, a patient’s flight request is put into the organization’s system. After a patient intake is completed, it goes out to the volunteer pilot community, who may then sign up to pilot a flight, depending on their availability and the airplane’s accommodations, since some patients may need a specific type of aircraft if they are in a wheelchair or physically unable to climb onto a wing to enter the plane. If no pilots are available to answer a particular flight request, further calls are made to arrange logistics. Once an outgoing flight request is met, PALS arranges for the patient’s transport home, which usually occurs on the same day. However, when a patient’s discharge plans are unknown, the organization has a relationship with Ronald McDonald House (for pediatric patients and family escort), Hope Lodge, and others so that they have a place to stay until PALS can get a patient out the following day, or shortly thereafter.
A majority of the charitable patient airlift services provided by PALS SkyHope are for adults and children requiring treatment for cancer or other serious illnesses and for people with rare diseases and conditions that require a specialist’s care at a specialty facility, such as Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City and more. Children account for 30% of patients transported by air to these medical centers of excellence.
Since safety is paramount and weight on any aircraft is a critical issue, the less weight, the better in filling a flight. In trying to accommodate family, PALS is empathetic to what people are going through, and they have a ‘yes mentality’ in providing air transport to family escorts. But their numbers are limited, dependent on the length of the flight, pilot availability and their aircraft’s specifications and allowances. When poor weather conditions prevent a flight from happening and a patient must get to a necessary scheduled treatment or procedure, PALS SkyHope has a relationship with several commercial airlines (Southwest, JetBlue, Cape Air) who donate vouchers to them for the patient to use when needed.
Volunteer pilots fly from everywhere within the region that PALS serves. Most flights do not depart from any one particular airport. In the New York metropolitan area, many pilots are based out of Long Island, and a few flights actually come into Republic Airport. As a whole, there are many flights into and out of New York State, and PALS serves a lot of New Yorkers in rural areas and those with little means.
Many of the volunteer pilots are based in Boston and the New England region, but there are not as many toward the middle of the country, such as western Pennsylvania and Ohio. In West Virginia, where medical facilities are sparse, fewer pilots are available to volunteer their time and use of aircraft. Therefore, the staff at PALS work diligently to identify locations in surrounding states that logistically make sense for pilots to pick up patients from and transport them to their treatments. Once these locations are identified, PALS reaches out to recruit and educate pilots about the need for their services. Additionally, some volunteer pilots act as PALS ambassadors who help spread the word in their local communities and engage other qualified pilots to volunteer.
Patient Stories
Over the years and through their many missions, the number of lives PALS SkyHope has impacted is innumerable. The dream of its founders continues through the many rewarding and touching stories of patients, past and present, such as the Virginia family whose child comes up to Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York for the treatment of Osteosarcoma or the Long Island family whose loved one has a rare disease that requires treatment in Pennsylvania, or the patient on a clinical trial that requires an infusion three times a week at a specialized facility that is far from home, or a person transported by PALS over 300 times to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Another of PALS SkyHope’s inspiring stories is that of a seriously injured ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ veteran, Retired Army Captain Theresa Reer. Theresa waited three years for a match with a service dog specifically trained to assist her in everyday mobility tasks and to provide her comfort. When a dog named Oscar finally came through for her via the Smithtown-based non-profit America’s VetDogs, only a few days before she was set to fly to New York, Theresa’s home state of Ohio was put on the list of states requiring a quarantine of 14 days before her planned arrival. Unable to quarantine for the two weeks before Theresa’s training with Oscar began, if she couldn’t get to New York from Ohio, Oscar would go to the next veteran on the list, and her long wait would again begin.
When PALS volunteer pilot and Board member Terry Flood (assigned to Theresa’s return flight) heard that Theresa’s training was being canceled, he felt compelled to do something to resolve the issue. After doing some research, Terry was able to assist Theresa in applying for a waiver to the COVID-19 travel quarantine requirement. Terry and Theresa were delighted when the waiver was granted; today, she and Oscar are inseparable. “Oscar will make a big difference in my life. As long as Oscar is by my side, I’m good,” said Theresa.
Today, several of PALS SkyHope founders continue to fly for the organization. One of them is Joe Howley, who has served as President of the Board of Directors at PALS SkyHope since 2014. Joe has been volunteer flying for over 20 years. As founding Chairman, he was instrumental in the origination of PALS, having flown more than 1,000 PALS passenger missions. He said, “There is no other volunteer pilot organization that can match our transparency, efficacy, and passion to help those in need. Our superb pilots and staff are second to none.”
Eight full-time people staff PALS SkyHope, and there is a lot of coordination involved in every flight. Pilots want to fly, and patients need to go. Together, they make it happen, and the need is, and will always be there.
Funding for PALS SkyHope comes through private donations, individuals, foundations, and grants.
More information about PALS SkyHope, volunteering, their partnerships, donating to and fund-raising events can be found online at www.skyhope.org or by phone at 888-818-1231 or (631) 649-PALS (7257).
