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Mission 122 Mission 121 | View All Mission Reports | Mission 123 Departure: Arrival: Date: Mission Report Bob M is a snowbird from Grand Rapids, Michigan and was spending his 3rd winter in Florida when he came down with pneumonia. While in the hospital for antibiotics, he became increasingly confused. The doctors could not give his wife an explanation and he was discharged to a nursing home. Their daughter is a physician assistant back in Michigan and was frustrated she couldn’t be there to help. As he became weaker and more confused, her solution was to get him back to Michigan to be closer to family and friends and also so she could look after his health-care. She contacted Grace on Wings and we were out to get him the next day. As our flight protocol, we requested a foley catheter placed the night before so we could monitor his urine output. We also learned that his recent labwork showed he was at dangerously high levels of blood thinner and if he would happen to get a nose bleed or cut-we would have great difficulty stopping the bleeding. We arrived to a confused patient and distressed wife. I hugged her and reassured her they were in good hands. We prayed over Bob before loading him on the plane for the 3 1/2 hr flight. He was very confused at times and pulling off his monitoring leads so we had to give him a sedative. He looked very dehydrated so we gave him some IV fluids in route, but he failed to produce hardly any urine during our transport. After landing I called his daughter to let her know I did not feel comfortable sending him to the nursing home without an evaluation to check his renal status and blood coagulation. We took him to the closest ER where we met her. We gathered around him to pray before leaving and his wife was so happy to finally get him home. His daughter sent me an email 2 days later and said he had been dangerously dehydrated from the nursing home in Florida and after rehydrating him and changing one of the medications he had recently been placed on-his head cleared and he was excited to go to rehab and hopefully home soon! I’m so thankful we got to him just before he had became critically ill and God’s aircraft and mission provided true healing for him and his family. Thanks to great care by nurse JoLynne and to awesome flying by Hal, DJ and Jim D. Tam
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