Although about 85% of the individuals we transport are children, we place no age constraints on those we serve. Sometimes, we begin transporting our patients as children and continue to fly them well into adulthood. This is the case with Corynn.
Corynn is a beautiful young woman who first started traveling to St. Louis for treatment of cerebral palsy when she was only three. Back then, she would pile into the family car with her mom and four siblings for the nine-hour car ride from a small town in Kansas. When she was 13, Corynn and her family learned of Wings of Hope. Corynn turns 22 this month, and we have flown her in our MAT planes 22 times. She has been treated by a team of experts at both St. Louis Shriners and Children’s Hospitals. Now that she has “aged out” of those facilities, she is receiving treatment at the Center for Advanced Medicine in St. Louis.
Her mother, Jody, says the quality of care available in their hometown could never match the treatment Corynn has received in St. Louis. In addition to meeting with a renowned team of specialists, Corynn has been able to participate in clinical trials and research programs that have afforded her advanced care available nowhere else.
“None of this would have happened back at home,” says Jody.
Corynn has no doubt that her life would be vastly different without Wings of Hope and the St. Louis doctors who have cared for her all these years.
“I would not be walking if not for Shriners and Children’s,” she says.
We are so privileged that our wings have played a part in Corynn’s journey to an improved quality of life!