You are saving hundreds of little lives through MAF medical flights

“I’ll never, ever forget that day as long as I live. Joshua’s temp was 105, and during the flight, his eyes rolled back in his head. I thought I had lost him. Over the drone of the engine, I cried out, ‘Can’t this thing go any faster?’ ”

Janice Cotrone was serving as a missionary nurse in Haiti when her two-year-old adopted son became extremely ill with malaria and typhoid. She couldn’t find anyone to treat him. Fortunately, Mission Aviation Fellowship was there to help, flying Janice and her son to the hospital on the island of La Gonave.

“Had it not been for the pilot and for MAF, our Joshua would not have survived,” said Janice. “Today, he is a high school senior. Praise the Lord!”

JOSHUA, then and now.

MAF conducts 4,000-plus medical flights each year, bringing medicines to stock rural clinics, transporting doctors and nurses, and delivering patients in critical condition or laboring mothers to the hospital. Over the years, MAF has helped many children reach the lifesaving help they needed.

MARIA

Maria was a young orphan who lived in a jungle village in Ecuador. MAF delivered her to the hospital in Shell, where doctors discovered that her kidneys were failing. They weren’t sure she would make it through the night, but she did and was flown to Quito the next morning to start dialysis. Maria received a kidney transplant in 2008, and today she is 19 years old. She lives with her adoptive family in the U.S., loves the Lord, and enjoys working with children, singing, journaling, and creating poetry.

DORCAS (left) and her sisters

In the village of Kikongo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is a set of 16-year-old triplets—a rare thing in the DRC. One of the girls, Dorcas, nearly died from a severe case of malaria. Providentially, there was room on a scheduled flight that was already in the air because two passengers had canceled at the last minute. MAF pilot Rod Hochstetler was able to pick up Dorcas and her mother in their village and rush them to the hospital at Vanga, where the girl received lifesaving treatment.

The Burkhart twins and Jeannie in Tigi.

When missionary Jeannie Burkhart went into early labor in the remote village of Tigi in Papua, Indonesia, an MAF flight whisked her off to the hospital at Mulia. She gave birth 45 minutes after landing … to a surprise set of twins! Miraculously, though premature, the boys survived, and their lives had a huge impact on the Papuan villagers their parents were trying to reach. Today Andy is a pediatric paramedic for a helicopter transport team, and brother Dan pilots a corporate jet. They’re celebrating their 46th birthdays this month.

ANDY and DAN

While not all medevac flights have a happy ending like these did, still, many people have received a second chance at life because of your partnership with MAF.

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Read the full edition of the Spring 2016 FlightWatch: