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Macon, Ga., Pilot Ferries Patients, Families for Medical Treatment

Posted on: Monday, 18 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 18--Macon's Mark Stuckey makes a living as an attorney, but he's earning praise as a pilot.

When he flies, a medal hangs overhead in his Sierra four-seater plane. It bears the image of Our Lady of Loretto, a patron saint of aviators. But it's Stuckey who is the angel for the families who climb into his plane.

Stuckey, 36, is one of about 600 pilots who volunteer their time and planes to fly patients and their families for medical treatment through a program called Angel Flight of Georgia.

"Mark's kind of an archangel," said Bernadette Darnell, mission coordinator for the nonprofit organization.

At about noon Friday, as Stuckey was approaching the DeKalb Peachtree Airport outside Atlanta, Darnell was tracking him and two other incoming Angel Flight pilots on the Flight Explorer computer program in her office.

"We've got three babies coming in today," Darnell said into the phone cradled to her ear.

On the other line, Earth Angel Beverly Syrek was listening to hear how many people she'd be transporting to their appointments.

For about five years, Syrek, a customer service representative for Mercury Air Center, has been providing ground transportation for Angel Flight families in the company van.

Pictures of small children and thank-you notes fill the bulletin board in her office. An unopened letter is addressed to Yakab, the cab driver who donates his car when Syrek's not available.

"We've got an absolute wall of nothing but 'I love you,' 'What would we do without you?' and God blessing us," said Syrek, who beams when talking about "her babies."

A 12-year-old cancer patient has particularly grabbed her heart. During the course of the young girl's flights, Syrek's watched as she progressed from wheelchair to walker to walking on her own.

"When she got off the plane and I saw her and she walked to me, her mother looked at me and said, 'A miracle has happened,' " said Syrek, fanning the tears welling in her eyes. "I just get so emotional."

There's no time for that. Stuckey has just landed with Tara Marcum and her 7-month-old son Gavin, who suffers from plagiocephaly, a malformation of the head.

"When he was in my stomach, he was pushed up against something and the right side of his head is flat," said Marcum, who met Stuckey at the airport in Dothan, Ala., near her home in Enterprise.

Before learning about Angel Flight, she and her husband recently spent about five hours in the car driving Gavin to his first appointment, where he was fitted with a special helmet to reshape his head.

He'll require an adjustment every other week for up to four months. Some younger plagio patients must visit the Center for Craniofacial Disorders at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital every week, Marcum said.

As Gavin was sucking down his noontime bottle, another plagio patient was landing on the second Angel Flight of the day.

Before plane passenger Kelly Jordan could hit a good stride carrying her 5-month-old baby in her infant carrier, Syrek swooped up little Caroline, who traveled from Columbus, Miss., to be fitted with a helmet.

During the 15-minute ride to the cranial center, the two mothers discussed the high cost of caring for a child with plagiocephaly. The helmet alone is about $3,000, and some insurance companies do not cover the treatment, Marcum said.

Having transportation and sometimes lodging costs paid by Angel Flight is a relief, she said.

"It really helps. It's a wonderful blessing," Marcum said. "I've told everybody I know about Angel Flight. You are in everybody's prayers," she told Syrek, who was behind the wheel of the minivan.

"Well, we feel them," Syrek replied shortly before getting a cell-phone call alerting her the next patient has landed.

Back at the airport, Stuckey is keeping a close eye on thunderstorms popping up on the radar.

He'll be able to fly home to Macon, but the returning Angel Flights to Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee will be canceled. Darnell, the mission coordinator, is back on the telephone busily booking free rooms for the stranded passengers.

Her daughter, Jeanine Chambers, is the executive director of Angel Flight of Georgia, which was founded in 1984 by Darnell's friend, the late Jim Shafer.

"To me, Angel Flight epitomizes the kindness of strangers," Chambers said. "Angel Flight provides hope."

From the time Chambers came on board, the number of flights has increased from 272 in 2000 to 1,201 in 2004, she said.

This year, they've already flown more than 700, she said.

Angel Flight of Georgia is part of the Air Care Alliance, a partnership of 50 similar benefit-flying organizations across the country.

Angel Flight needs about three-days notice to schedule a mission and will help families as often as it can.

Stuckey plans to fly about once a month, which is about what his budget will allow. Each mission costs the pilot between $600 and $1,000 that is tax deductible, Chambers said.

Flight instructor Kerwin Day joined Angel Flight when the organization was flying disaster workers to New York and Washington following the Sept. 11 attacks, when commercial flights were grounded.

Now Day, who flew the Jordans from Mississippi, encourages his students to volunteer for a mission while boosting their hours.

It beats flying to random destinations, Chambers said.

"Instead of punching holes in the sky, punch holes through walls to help our patients," she said.

For Stuckey, Angel Flight gives him the opportunity to combine his love of flying with helping others.

While he sometimes schedules missions around depositions or work appointments in Atlanta, there are times like Friday when he blocks out the whole day for an Angel Flight.

Since becoming an Angel Flight volunteer in January, he's flown several missions, including flying adult Lyme disease patients from the Southeast to a specialist in North Carolina.

After three flights with a 12-year-old cancer patient from Albany, he's seen her develop from cautious fear on the first flight to being totally at ease with her pilot.

"When I picked her up Tuesday, she was grinning from ear to ear," said Stuckey, who is the father of a toddler and has another child on the way in September. "To me, if the situation was reversed, I would want someone to do that for me. It's just someone being nice."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.

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Source: The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Ga.)

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