Marks An 8.8 Percent Increase Over August

Miracle Flights has reported a total of 604 free commercial flights provided to critically ill children in September, an 8.8 percent increase over August's total of 555 flights and a 5.4 percent increase over September 2017's total of 573 flights.

Since its founding in 1985, the Las Vegas–based national nonprofit organization has provided 120,608 flights to sick children across the country and around world in need of specialized medical care far from home. Last month alone, Miracle Flights coordinated commercial flights for patients from 24 U.S. states and four countries, including Azerbaijan, Chile, Germany and Peru.

According to Miracle Flights CEO Mark E. Brown, the majority of flight recipients are children with rare or complex medical conditions who require not one but several flights for ongoing treatment not available in their home communities.

"Often when a child has an exceptionally rare condition, there simply aren't resources available to offset medical costs, and frequent travel to out-of-state medical facilities can be cost prohibitive for many families. Miracle Flights alleviates that financial burden to make distant care possible," said Brown. "And because Miracle Flights is not diagnosis specific, we can open our doors to any sick child who needs to travel for specialized care."

As an example, Brown cites 5-year-old Dominic from Michigan, who was born with a one in a million variation of Hirschsprung's disease, a condition that affects the intestines. Miracle Flights has flown Dominic to Boston for treatment every other month since July 2014—a total of 30 flights to date.

"Dominic's parents recently wrote to us that thanks to the expert care he's been able to receive over these past few years, they can now worry about finding him the perfect Spiderman costume for Halloween instead of fighting for his life," said Brown. "Stories like Dominic's fuel our mission to help as many children as we can live a better quality of life."

(Source: Miracle Flights news release)

FMI: miracleflights.org