Our volunteers are the lifeblood of Wings of Hope. Whether they are in the hangar working on planes or in the front office managing administrative and financial tasks, we depend on them to do mission-critical work that keeps our wings in the air and our operations running smoothly.
PEGGY LEE
CHIEF MEDIC
Chief Medic Peggy Lee joined Wings of Hope in 2017 after 43 years as a nurse at Missouri Baptist Medical Center/BJC HealthCare. Her career spanned all areas of nursing including cardiac, surgical, emergency room, administration, home health and, most recently, recovery room.
Peggy learned the importance of volunteering from her mother.
“I remember my mom when I was about 8 or 9, she signed the girls up to be church helpers. There are nine of us. We’d go on a weekend and dust the church,” Peggy said. “Even with nine kids, my mom was always involved in volunteering. It was always instilled in us. She taught us that you get more fulfillment out of that than you give — a thousand times more.”
Currently, four doctors and four nurses make up our team of medics. heir job is simple but critical: to fly with patients who may need some extra monitoring and support during transport.
Every patient is accompanied by a medic on their first flight. After that, only patients who meet certain criteria fly with a medic — including patients who need oxygen and those on stretchers. When deciding who requires a medic, Wings of Hope Medical Director Dr. Charles Bowen makes the final call.
Most of the children we fly to and from Shriners Children’s St. Louis do not need medics.
“Aside from their orthopedic issues, they’re healthy. They don’t need a medic,” said Peggy.
Medics are limited in what they can offer on flights because they would have to be licensed in every state the plane flies over to, for example, administer medication to a patient as they fly above that state.
“We cannot give any medications, but they may have a family member with them who can administer their meds or, if they are able, they can give themselves medications,” said Peggy.
Checking vital signs and monitoring oxygen levels are key functions of our medics.
“Our oxygen inside the plane is not going to be the same as it is here on the ground,” Peggy said. “When we have a medic on board, we always monitor their oxygen. If there is a problem, we have to let the pilot know and either go down lower or land.”
In her role leading our team of medics, Peggy not only flies with patients, she also is in charge of making all the necessary phone calls to patients, family members, doctors, nurses, and staff at the medical centers receiving patients. This process can take up to three weeks.
“But if we get a phone call that somebody’s at the end of their life and the family wants to see them one last time, we will pull a plane and a crew together in days,” Peggy said. “They are a priority — to get those patients home with their loved ones.”
End-of-life flights occur quite frequently and always require a medic. Peggy recalled an end-of-life flight with a patient who had just “hours to live.”
“We made it, and he died about 15 minutes after we landed — but the family was so thankful that we got him home,” she said. “It was everything to them.”
Peggy said one of the best parts of volunteering as a Wings of Hope medic is “the people I work with — all the volunteers are great.”
“And I love the patients,” she said. “I’ve always loved nursing which is why I’ll do it until I become a patient.”
When asked how volunteering at Wings of Hope compares to her nursing career, Peggy said: “This is the best non-paying nursing job I’ve ever had.”
GREG KWASNY
MEDIC
Dr. Greg Kwasny was a pilot for Wings of Hope before he became a medic. Today, he also works in the Volunteer Fulfillment and Purchasing departments — and on the post-flight team.
“We clean up, vacuum, check the oil, and make sure the plane is ready for the next flight,” he said.
Greg began flying for Wings of Hope as a volunteer pilot after 35 years as an ophthalmologist in Milwaukee. After retiring from his medical practice, he moved to St. Louis to be close to family. Although he no longer practices medicine, Greg spends one day a week teaching in the ophthalmology residency program at Saint Louis University.
Greg said what he likes most about being a medic is interacting with patients.
“A lot of the patients have never flown in a small airplane before, so having a medical background and being a pilot, I can tell them what’s happening, what the noises are,” said Greg. “The pilots are busy flying the airplane. It’s pretty noisy and hard for them to communicate with the patients. But I’m sitting right next to them, and I can explain what’s happening.”
Greg also enjoys the relationships he has built with patients who have been flying with Wings of Hope for years. He calls them “frequent flyers.”
“We get to know them pretty well and watch their progress,” said Greg. “We started flying one kid out of Kansas when she was 4 or 5. She’s now in her teens. At first, she couldn’t even walk; now, she’s playing softball.”
Adult cancer patients also tend to fly with Wings of Hope over many months or years.
“We have two ladies, one with advanced breast cancer, that we fly to MD Anderson,” said Greg. “She has a friend who flies with her as a caregiver. They’ve been flying with us for four to five years.”
Greg said he was initially attracted to Wings of Hope for the opportunity to continue flying.
Even though he is no longer flying for us — he aged out when he turned 75 before the age limit was increased to 80 — he still enjoys volunteering.
“It’s a nice group of people, and most of them are in the same age group as me,” said Greg, who just turned 80. “Plus, overall, the mission that we’re doing — it feels like we’re accomplishing something, even at our advanced age.”