Hey, frequent flyers. We are back with another episode of Takeoff Talk, and today we have a FE passenger, Debbie with us.

Hey Debbie. Hello. How are you?

Good.

Thank you so much for being with us today. Can you tell a little bit about your journey to our listeners and how you found Angel Flight East?

Yeah. Um, so about 10, almost, well, about 11 years ago, I started having problems with my heart and it took about two years to get a true diagnosis, which was hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Um, so I've spent the last 11 years having fun with this journey. Um, I had to have a transplant. Only about 5% of us go to transplant, but I had my first transplant, um, November 27th, 2020, and then I had to get a second transplant. That was done August 21st, 2024. So during the meantime, um, because I had a difficult journey with my first heart, um, I had to go on Social security disability. I couldn't go back to work. And of course I don't get a whole lot of money and I, I live in Virginia, but I go to Cleveland Clinic and it's quite a distance and it's very expensive. And we were getting to the point where we just couldn't afford to travel and lodging and everything. And since I am a member of the HCMA, the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association, they've partnered with Angel, angel Flight East. And so Lisa told us all about, she's the CEO of HCMA, and she told us about how they, they partnered with you guys. And so I used it for the first time December-ish, something like that, November, December. Mm-hmm. And Kley was my pilot for the first, well he, my first leg up to Cleveland Clinic, he was my pilot and he was wonderful. Absolutely went above and beyond.

That's our guy. And I will always give a shout out to Kley. He is actually our pilot of the year this year.

I know, I know. I am excited to see that.

Yeah. So, I feel like sometimes our whole flight board is just Clay's name and he's so accustomed to us calling him if we need a last-minute flight filled that he essentially answers the phone like, where am I going? And who am I taking up? And, he is and incredibly selfless too.

Yeah, it was wonderful. David had scheduled for me to land in, um, so I'd left a date earlier than what I was supposed to. 'cause they were having trouble getting coordination for the flights because I guess they typically will do like two legs to go up and then two legs to come back. And um, I guess they had trouble finding somebody to do the second leg. So David had me staying overnight and a little podunk town in West Virginia. Well, we got there. He gave me the, the, um, the link to get ahold of the Uber driver, Lyft, whichever one it was to take me to the hotel room. And I tried and I, was there with me waiting and he said, well, let me do this. So he contacted whomever from the airport, took their, um, I guess they have like a little, a little car that they use for their employees. And he took me to the hotel, which was like a half an hour away. And we got to the hotel and I got checked in and everything. And I'm like, okay, well we had trouble with the, with the driver coming to give me how am I gonna get back to the ho to the airport first thing in the morning? So, um, we couldn't really get in a hold of anybody 'cause it was late at night and Kley just said, why don't I just take you all the way? So, oh gosh. we went back to the airport and um, we got back in the plane and he took me to Cleveland and then he, the night there in their on call room area.

These are the things that we don't necessarily hear about all the time because our pilots are so incredibly humble and they don't wanna tell us about when they go above and beyond for passengers. So I'm gonna have to text him after this and be like, why did you not tell me what you did? That's amazing. And just the fact that he was so willing to kind of take the next step and just go so above and beyond. I love that.

Yeah, he was great. He was great.

And I know you were referred to by HTMA, which they are also great to work with. And I remember our first point of contact was your husband Lou, who is a pleasure to talk to. And when I first spoke to him and he said, you were in Cleveland getting a heart transplant, I was like, why are you not there? We have to take you as soon as possible as a compassion flight. But he was just so happy to learn about Angel Flight and just that we could jump in and assist you guys in your time of need and just kind of take the stress of travel away too.

Yeah, it's, it's been a huge, huge help because, well, since I'm so recent in this new transplant, I have to go up there quite frequently and since I'm their problem child Yeah. It's even more frequent.

Well how often do you have to go back and forth for the follow up?

Right now I'm down to every six weeks, but that also depends on if they see anything. Mm-hmm. Cause concern.

Oh, got it.

So I just, I just got there, so I was doing biweekly and then monthly.

Oh wow. this visit a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. And that's a lot of back and forth for sure.

Well, like I said, it's not only the, the travel time, it's the distance, the gas, the food, the hotel, and we stay on campus so the hotel's more expensive and you know, it's right in the middle of Cleveland, so Yeah. And it adds up pretty quickly. And we've had, um, some people come to us and they're are so nice and just say they never wanna take a flight away from somebody else and they could afford it a couple of times, but if you have to travel on a consistent basis, it adds up super, super quickly. Um, so I always stress that our pilots really do just love to fly and we have so many pilots that are kind of knocking down our doors saying we need more patients and we want to fly more and more. So, it's just amazing to see especially the pilots that build the friendships with the patients and they just become kind of an extra extension of their support team.

Yes. It's wonderful. What you all do is simply amazing.

Can you explain, um, to our listeners what it's like to fly in a small airplane? That was my bucket list really, to fly in small airplane.

Well, I'm glad we could complete your bucket list. I love that because it's been on my bucket list for years

So I was able to sit up front with the pilots and luck out out the, the main window and get to see everything from up above. And it's so much different than seeing it from the inside of a plane from Yeah. That window, you know, it was, it's also so peaceful too in a way. Oh my gosh. But yeah, that was my bucket list is to be able to fly in a plane and ride up front with a pilot. Oh my gosh. I was that off.

Yeah. Is next on your list to go skydiving? You can jump out of a small airplane, not just be in it.

No, no, no. I'm not that crazy. Yeah. Before you found Angel Flight, were you just kind of driving back and forth? Yep. Wow. And how long of a drive was that? From Virginia to 12 hours..

And that probably doesn't even account for any of the stops or anything if you had to make that.

Well that's, that's pretty much how, I mean, if we were to drive straight through and to stop for gas once, we could probably make it at about 10. That's still a lot though. It's still a long drive.

Yeah. Wow. Do you have, um, besides Kley, I know you've flown a few times with us. Do you have any other, um, fun flight stories or pilot stories for us?

Um, the one that I had, I, I'm sorry, not remember his name, but, um, he was the flight between Maryland and Virginia. I think that's where we landed is Maryland. And he let me play with some of the controls too, just the, just the, um, changing the, the uh, the radio stuff when they have you go to a different channel. Mm-hmm. You just have to, yeah, it was great. There's a lot of buttons on there and I late lessons and I'm so scared to touch some of them and the pilots just make it look so easy and I was like, how do you know what to do?

Yeah. And, but you know, they were showing me on their little iPads and stuff where we were and some of the different things that we could see out the windows and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. So, so funny because when our pilots, when you kind of get them in a room, I'm like, if you don't know what to talk about, just say anything about aviation and they'll talk your ear off for hours just 'cause I love talking about flying. Well, that's what they do.

Yeah. I go away my horses, so.

Yeah. I was gonna say, do you guys live on a farm in West or in Virginia?

Yeah. Oh, wow. Because you also, I think you and your husband did a blog post about your, um, experiences with Angel Flight, which was awesome too. Yes, yes. And Lou actually did, um, I think it's over with now, but he did a kind of a fundraiser with his business.

Yeah. That's so great. What, um, how would you say Angel Flight has affected your life?

Oh my gosh. The, the times I've been able to use you, you guys, it's been a godsend because I was able to go to my appointments. Lou was able to stay here on the farm so we didn't have to worry about trying to find somebody else to take care of the critters and, um, it wasn't as stressful as far as, you know, driving for all of that time. So I wasn't as tired when I got up there. Just, you know, driving for that length of time you get kind of tired.

Yeah, for sure. This, um, doesn't really have anything to do with Angel Flight at all, but how many animals do you have on your farm?

We have 12 horses right now. Most of them are miniatures and then we have five cats. Wow. I'll have to come visit. We don't, we don't have any problems with snakes outside. Yeah, I can imagine.

That's so cool. Have you lived there or lived on a while? No, well I've lived here since 2018. I do not live in Virginia.

Yeah, I was gonna say, I can't imagine, well, no wonder Lou didn't wanna fly back and forth because who would take care of the 12 horses while he was gone? So it's, it's been nice. I mean, we have some neighbors that have volunteered to take care of the critters when we have to, but we, we both hate having to depend on that because if they're gone or, you know, something like that. And, and my, my schedule is kind of set at Cleveland because it depends on when they can get me in and their timeframe that they need to get me in. And so it's, that's pretty much non-negotiable.

Yeah, definitely. Are you still pretty connected to HCMA then?

Oh, definitely.

Yeah. That's amazing. Um, 'cause I didn't even know one of our coworkers at Angel Flight connected us to HCMA and apparently it just, it's kind of mind-boggling that so many people have cardiac issues and it's misdiagnosed because they don't especially underweight. And it's really sad. Yep. It's, takes probably on average about anywhere from two to five years, but there are some people that have gone their whole life without being properly diagnosed and they just discovered an autopsy. Mm-hmm. So everything has been pushed off onto some other diagnosis and Lisa is a force to be reckoned with. She is trail leader in that community. And I was like, you are incredible.

Yeah. are the voice for a lot of people that people have no idea what's wrong with them.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm part of their ambassador program, so, you know, I help spread the word about HCMA. Mm-hmm. And I'm also part of their education committee. Oh, good. Yeah. So what trying to do is trying to educate the public gone, you know, these are, these are some normal things. Um, this is what HCM is. Um, these are the types of things that you need to talk to your doctor about. We know your family's heart history, you know, so those types of things is what we do with the education committee. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which is just so important in that line of work too.

Yeah. So what is, um, one final thought you would want to leave our listeners with?

I am so happy that HCA connected with you guys because like I said, you, you've been a godsend. I've got an email out to David right now for my next appointment, so. Oh, good. Yeah, he is.

Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. I wish we still had a video portion of this podcast because I do love your horse background and our previous, uh, colleague at Angel Flight loved horses, so I can't wait to at least tell her about this. Um, but yeah, we are so grateful we're able to help you and we will be able to be here to help you for as long as needed. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate everything. You all do. Yeah, thanks Debbie. Thank you.

Yep. Bye bye-Bye.