Pilot Jim Schmidt lands recently at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport after flying a patient from Bar Harbor to Boston for medical treatment. His home base is the A-L airport. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

AUBURN — The vast expanses and remoteness of parts of Maine are what make it so attractive to many people. But those same characteristics can also become a huge roadblock to getting very sick people the life-saving treatment and specialty care offered in large cities.

Starting in the 1980s, nonprofit organizations formed in different parts of the country to offer a solution for people who need specialized medical care but can’t get to it or can’t afford to fly there on commercial or chartered flights. Some are immunocompromised and cannot risk flying on a commercial plane.

Patient AirLift Services, or PALS SkyHope, is a nonprofit organization serving Maine and beyond, primarily on the East Coast. It was formed in 2010 by a group of pilots, including Auburn-based pilot Jim Platz, who started working with other airlift organizations like Angel Flight back in 1996. He continues to work with Make-A-Wish Foundation, Maine Audubon and other organizations.

“The need was still there — a far greater need in Maine than other services could provide,” Platz said Monday. “Also, the direction of the organizations differed from what the pilots here felt was needed.”

Platz explains that there is a high concentration of pilots in the greater Boston, New York and Philadelphia areas to draw from, and those cities host some of the best and most specialized cancer hospitals, including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General in Boston, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Pilots volunteer their time, the use of their aircraft and all flight-related costs like fuel and landing fees to ferry children, adults and veterans to their destination for surgery, chemotherapy, dialysis or other care for life-threatening or rare diseases.

Since its inception in 2010, PALS has flown over 33,000 flights, with 11,000 of them in and out of Maine, helping thousands of patients get the care to extend or save their lives.

GRATEFUL PATIENTS AND SELFLESS PILOTS

Jim Schmidt runs a successful insurance business in Yarmouth and has been a pilot for more than 20 years. His plane is based at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport and he has been volunteering for flights with PALS and other nonprofit organizations for 12 years, averaging one to two flights per week.

Pilot Jim Schmidt taxis to refuel recently at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport after flying a patient from Bar Harbor to Boston. His home base is the A-L airport. Schmidt has been flying PALS missions for 12 years. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“That’s the best, most rewarding thing I do,” he said after returning from a trip from Bar Harbor to Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, and back to Auburn.

“This woman I flew this morning, she said it would have been a six-hour car ride — with no traffic — going from Bar Harbor to Boston. It was an hour and a half in this airplane,” he added, referring to his blue and white Cessna.

Lynn is the patient Schmidt flew to Boston. She asked that we only use her first name for personal reasons. Lynn said in a phone interview Monday that she has used PALS flights four times in the past few months. She has a recurrent form of cancer that’s very aggressive and needs to go to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for treatment.

Pilot Jim Schmidt, left, flew a patient, who asked to be identified as Lynn, on a recent airlift flight from Bar Harbor to Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass. Submitted photo

Facing a six-hour drive each way after undergoing chemotherapy would cause her undue stress. Her tone changes considerably as she talks about her experience with PALS, calling it tremendous.

“The PALS service is a lifeline for me… it’s a game changer. To try and fly commercially or hire a charter would be too expensive for me to pay for,” Lynn explains. “The service is fantastic — the team is incredibly organized, and the pilots are incredibly kind.”

The sentiment is echoed by another patient, Bill Gallant, who lives in Rumford and has to fly to Connecticut for his treatment. “I can’t put into words the appreciation I feel for the pilots and staff. I have had the pleasure of flying seven or eight times with them.”

“There seems to be this positive energy that exists during these flights,” Schmidt offered. “It starts even before the flight. It starts when I make the call to someone to say, my name is Jim and I’m your PALS pilot for next Tuesday … and they are almost like immediately very friendly,” he adds. “They don’t know who I am usually when I’m calling, so, when they learn who it is, they are friendly and grateful. And it’s a nice connection even over the telephone.”

Not all pilots fly the entire trip with patients, who sometimes stay overnight or longer for treatment. Sometimes the distance is too great, and they team up with other pilots or organizations to share the route. On some PALS missions, pilots meet up at the Auburn-Lewiston airport and transfer patients from one plane to another to complete the flight. That’s especially true for flights that originate in Frenchville, Caribou or Presque Isle.

Jim Platz is a co-founder of PALS and has been involved with flying patients voluntarily since 1996, logging more than 5,000 flights. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

“It feels like you have helped someone in a direct way and it’s a direct way of giving back,” Platz said, as he explained how it feels after completing a PALS flight. “It’s a satisfying way to help reduce or get rid of the barriers to getting medical care.”

Platz has been involved with volunteer patient flights long enough to have flown the son of one of his former patients years later. He said he started by flying a neighbor who was seeking specialty care in Chicago and Philadelphia. Soon after he saw a brochure from an organization that offered patient flights, and he got involved. Since then, he’s flown over 5,000 volunteer flights.

In the end, it’s all about the patients, who made it clear that their experience with PALS helped them cope with their medical condition. “Reducing the stress of having to travel and arrange everything is a big help,” Lynn told the Sun Journal, “and it has changed my treatment and has made a huge difference.”

HOW PATIENT AIRLIFT SERVICES WORKS 

Donna Collins is the executive director for PALS SkyHope and says they have a pool of about 1,500 pilots, 300 of whom are actively flying PALS missions. They maintain a small, dedicated staff who handle all the logistics of connecting people in need with pilots. It’s why they are always trying to recruit new pilots.

“We need the pool to constantly have resources available,” Collins explained, “for the unique needs of new geographies.” Demand has grown every year and is coming from all up and down the East Coast, which means more flights.

Jim Schmidt pushes his plane out of the way after filling it with fuel at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport after flying a client from Bar Harbor to Boston. Schmidt says he flies patient trips one or two times a week. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“We can’t even meet the demands,” Collins said when asked if it has increased or decreased in recent years. “Actually demand is much greater.”

Surprisingly, not enough people in healthcare or social services are aware of the services PALS SkyHope and other organizations offer. That’s why they have to recruit not only pilots, but patients.

“I have spoken to many people in the healthcare system about this service and they can’t believe it exists,” said Gallant, the patient from Rumford. He’s been using PALS for almost three years, flying from Auburn to North Windham, Connecticut, where he meets his daughter, who drives him to the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut.

The service is free — there is no cost to the patient. Most patients must demonstrate a financial need for the service, but everything can be handled online and on the phone. Patients are expected to arrange their own ground transportation, but PALS will even help arrange and pay for transportation at either end of the trip, if there is a need.

There is a screening process for patients and pilots alike. Patients must be medically stable to travel, be mobile and be able to fly in a small aircraft and not have a communicable disease.

Pilots must also meet certain requirements of flight time and certification, which are listed on the PALS website.

“I don’t get the same feeling doing anything else,” Schmidt said with pride in his voice. “There’s few things my wife and I have done from a volunteer perspective that are similar and come pretty close, but this is pretty unique.”

For more information or to get involved with PALS, go online to www.palservices.org or call 631-694-PALS.