Pat Flynn has provided Jose with two Angel Bus trips in his big, beautiful rig. The best trip will be on the day Jose goes to get a new kidney.

The day that shouldn’t have to come came on October 24, 2011 to eight-year-old Jose. It was the day his mother dreaded, the day he began dialysis for stage five chronic kidney disease.

Jose was born with a congenital defect found only in male infants, posterior urethral valve. This is an abnormality causing obstruction of urinary flow. Unfortunately, doctors failed to detect it in time, and the boy’s kidney function progressively declined, leading to the need for home dialysis. This meant surgically installing an abdominal catheter, a device that uses the lining of the abdomen to filter waste products from the blood. Dialysis occurs overnight, which means Jose has to be in bed by 8:00 on school nights, and 9 on weekends. And this is what made Jose cry and ask the heartbreaking question, “When am I going to be normal?”

“I’ve always treated my children the same,” his mother said. Besides Jose, Jennifer has a 10-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. “I’ve never let him know he’s different. But now it’s hitting him that he is. He used to share a room with his brother, but now he has to have his own room because of the machines. He feels lonely.” The third-grader has also missed many days of school due to his illness and must leave his class every two hours to empty his catheter.

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Susie (left) and her mom, Maria, are ‘forever grateful’ for the gift of Angel Bus travel.

This is a guest post by Emily Altmann, a senior communications major at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, serving as an intern with Mercy Medical Airlift.

When Susie, a recent Angel Bus patient, was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma in August of 2010, options were limited for the 26-year-old, single mother of three.

Cholangiocarcinoma is a relatively rare bile duct cancer that affects the liver’s ability to drain bile into the small intestine.  This type of cancer is typically diagnosed at its more advanced stages and is unresponsive to chemotherapy and radiation, leaving surgery as the only option.

For many years, Susie reported pain but was misdiagnosed.  After the birth of her son and increasingly worse abdominal pains, doctors were able to remove her gallbladder and perform a second biopsy of the tumor.  As it turns out, they said the cancer has likely been affecting her for the last three years.

“After talking with my oncologist and confirming that it was indeed cancer, we began searching for surgeons,” said Susie.  “The surgeon most qualified here in El Paso unfortunately did not feel he could perform the surgery I needed, so I was referred to a doctor at MD Anderson.”

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Jackie, with “killer dog” Misse, Stanley and Mike take a break for a photo op.

The wheels on Mike and Jackie’s rig turned very early the morning of July 19 as the couple headed to Charlestown, Indiana, to pick up Stanley, the first Angel Bus patient to get a ride in a motor coach since the nonprofit organization was reinstated by Mercy Medical Airlift. Mike Miller is a volunteer driver who calls Livingston, Texas, home base. They were in Kentucky visiting Mike’s mother.

The two rose at 4:00 a.m. and drove to Charlestown in their luxurious 40-foot Mountain Aire. Stanley, a 15-year-old boy who suffers from epilepsy, and his mom, Karolee, got on board, with Stanley sitting up front as Mike’s “co-pilot.”

Their destination was Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center there is one of the nation’s leading facilities. Stanley was scheduled to undergo tests to determine whether or not he would be a good candidate for surgery. Besides taking anti-seizure medication, he also has a vagus nerve stimulator that was implanted surgically in 2008. “It’s supposed to cut back on seizures, but Stanley has been having difficulties,” Karolee said. She hopes he’ll be able to have the surgery, which repairs the part of the brain from which his seizures originate.  “They’re having a lot of success at Cincinnati,” she added.

Mike said that on the trip, he learned Stanley is “a history buff. He was looking around, asking questions, commenting on the old, historic homes and buildings in Cincinnati.” Read more…

William L. (Bill) Connor, founder of Angel Bus, age 50, lost his four-year battle with leukemia in September, 2008.

Bill developed his love of buses as a kid growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota.  As a youth, he had no other transportation, so he got everywhere he needed to go on a bus.  Later he obtained his own motorcoach, and his family said he was never happier than when he was behind the wheel.  In 1999, Bill’s son Jaran was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and Bill formed a nonprofit corporation, Angel Bus, which was modeled after Angel Flight, to transport terminally ill children in luxury and conversion coaches.  Jaran died in 2004 and 20 days after his death, Bill was diagnosed with acute leukemia.  He battled his illness for the ensuing four years. His goal was to reach age 50 and he did achieve that.

Angel Bus volunteer drivers Les and Pam Davidson were honored to provide the gift of transportation to Osvaldo L., a ten-year-old boy, just prior to Christmas.  Osvaldo requires routine medical appointments at UCLA Medical Center due to liver and bone marrow transplant.

Les and Pam picked Osvaldo and his mother up at the UCLA Medical Center and took them to their home in Ontario, California.  Osvaldo’s family did not have the means available to bring him home before Christmas.

In typical Angel Bus fashion, Les and Pam thanked Angel Bus for the opportunity to help out.