Fly Sarah Home

Sarah's family is moving to Oregon mid September 2016 and is in need of (fixed wing) air medical transport from Buffalo to Portland, Oregon, as there is no other way to move Sarah across the country. Please help Sarah to safely and quickly join her family.  


Sarah is a sweet and gentle young lady.  She is medically fragile and carries a diagnosis of R56.9 - unspecified convulsions, G80.0 - spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, M89.9 - disorder of bone, unspecified* and M16.9 - osteoarthritis of hip, unspecified.  Sarah is also profoundly intellectually impaired with very significant developmental delays.  She has a feeding tube surgically implanted for all liquid nourishment.  She is diapered and fully incontinent. 

Sarah's seizure disorder remains intractable despite medical intervention.  She seizes many times a day, every day.  Sarah has been diagnosed with stage 3 decubitus, and spinal scoliosis.  She is confined to her bed at all times. The bed has a Power Turn Elite Lateral Rotation Mattress system set to adjust her positioning every 15 minutes to relieve pressure.  Sarah cannot lay flat in her bed but must be semi-elevated due to aspiration precaution.  At times, Sarah may require 2 - 4 liters of Oxygen and/or successive nebulizer treatments when her breathing becomes compromised.  Sarah has no upper trunk control and cannot tolerate sitting in an upright or near upright position.   Her wheelchair is a Chunc Junior 45° tilt-in-space (which must accompany Sarah on her journey home).

Sarah's mother Francesca, has researched alternative avenues to safely transport Sarah to Portland - such as flying on a commercial carrier - but has hit countless roadblocks. First of all, Sarah's seizure disorder and medical conditions disqualify her from flying commercially.  Ground transportation whether it be through an RV-like vehicle or otherwise, is also not an option.  Ground transportation would require many consecutive days of travel and place Sarah at high risk for a medical emergency should something go awry when hours from civilization.  Consecutive days of ground travel would also be merciless to Sarah's stage 3 decubitus condition.  Furthermore, hotels do not have the bedding to achieve the sleeping posture Sarah MUST maintain (45°) or accommodate her other medical needs in any way. 

Air medical transport is not a measure of personal convenience for Sarah or her family but rather an obvious medical necessity to prevent the likelihood of more acute medical care.

Sarah will be forever grateful for your generosity and love.