BANGOR, Maine - Pilot Dan Herrick touched down at the General Aviation building near Bangor International Airport just before noon last Wednesday with a special delivery: 11-year-old Camara Johnson and her mom, Cherie Nichols.
The Woodland girl, who is undergoing treatment for a bone deformity in her foot called tarsal coalition, needed to get from her small Aroostook County hometown to Bangor for an appointment with her orthopedic surgeon.
Herrick’s mission on Wednesday was to fly the girl and her mother from a small airport in Caribou to Bangor, a distance he covered in about an hour and 15 minutes.
Nichols said Wednesday’s flight was their 20th over the last two years with Angel Flight Northeast, a nonprofit organization that provides air transportation in private aircraft by volunteer pilots so that children and adults may access life-saving medical care free of charge.
The divorced mother of five children, three of whom have special needs, Nichols said that without Angel Flight, she would be unable to get her daughter to and from her appointments with medical experts in Bangor and Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield, Mass.
“I don’t know what we would do without Angel Flight. I really don’t know. It would’ve been impossible,” Nichols said. “It’s been a lifesaver for us.”
To read the complete article, click here.
© 2010 Angel Flight Northeast. All Rights Reserved.
