A Flight To Remember
#N901WM on a recent call to Monhegan Island. Photo by Pilot Helge Melvaer
Sometimes the universe is strange. And wondrous.
In September I choose to give 20% of my October photo sales to LifeFlight of Maine.
This week I found out that 28 years ago, on September 20, one of the young paramedics who tried to save my father's life went on to become the founding director of LifeFlight of Maine. Until now, I had no idea.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, September 20 my father participated in an early morning rescue. At the same time he headed out for Port Clyde with his unconscious patient aboard his boat, The Tumblehome, the St. George medical team was dispatched to Monhegan. The plan was for the two boats to rendezvous at sea and the unconscious patient would be transferred over to the EMTs where they would transport the patient to the waiting ambulance in Port Clyde. One of those EMTs on that boat was Tom Judge, paramedic, and volunteer for the Fire and Ambulance Association. He would be one of the people who tended to my father when they realized they were dealing with a double rescue. Tom Judge would go on to become the founding director of LifeFlight of Maine and in November of 2019, he would be recognized with a Hall of Fame award honoring his decades of service to the field of emergency medical services and the state of Maine.
LifeFlight also saved my mother’s life.
In October 2000 I was living in NYC when I received the call that my mother had been Lifeflighted off Monhegan and was in the ICU at Pen Bay Medical Center. She was having a life-threatening asthma attack and the responding volunteer EMTs were unable to start her generator to administer the air she needed to breathe. Lifeflight saved her life that night.
The sound of a helicopter flying low overhead triggers memories of driving through the night to get up to Maine not knowing her condition - and most recently - a hulk of a helicopter in an empty ballfield, blades at rest, two men at its sides, heads bowed, waiting for news that would surely bring them to their knees.
The sound of Lifeflight means that the most critical might have a chance at life.
Through October, I donated 20% of all photo sales to Lifeflight of Maine and am proud to send them a donation in the amount of $280.00.
Thank you for your support in making this possible!