Patients Reunited With MedFlight Crews Who Helped Save Them
BEDFORD (CBS) – There were high fives, hugs and handshakes at the annual Boston Med Flight Patient Reunion at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford.
On Sunday, patients who had to be taken by MedFlight in recent months were given a chance to meet the ground crews who, in many cases helped save their lives.
Kristen Walsh says Boston MedFlight saved her son Patrick, who was born in respiratory failure in 2015 and had to be MedFlighted to Mass General Hospital. Today he's three years old and thriving.
"I thank them. They were wonderful. They got him just in time," Walsh said.
Boston MedFlight is a non-profit organization that started in 1985.
"We see everybody on their worst day. And so this is great opportunity for us. It's nice to be able to meet the families and see the good outcomes. It's good for us and them," Michael Frakes of Boston MedFlight said.
Six-year-old Caroline Connolly had to be air lifted after breaking her leg on Nantucket. Today she gave her hero a thank you card.
"I landed on the top of Children's Hospital," she recalls.
Every year Boston MedFlight transports 4,500 patients and this year they just celebrated their 70,000th patient transport.
"It's a healing day for the families," said Linda Colarossi of MedFlight. "It brings closure and we get to see people in a happy situation instead of how distraught they are when we pick them up."