Life flight

On Valentine’s Day 2025, our son Shawn experienced a severe asthma attack triggered by influenza A. He required specialized treatment at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, but we would have had to wait four hours before a pediatric ambulance would become available to transport us from Fairfield Medical Center’s emergency department in Lancaster. Going by medevac would get Shawn there within 45 minutes, including the helicopter’s arrival, ground assessments by the flight nurses, and the roughly 12-minute flight to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Given the gravity of our son’s breathing difficulties, the emergency department staff recommended the life flight. However, Shawn would have to go by himself with the pilot and two flight nurses.

My son has been fascinated with helicopters since he was a toddler—he would call them “hoppy toppies.” But I never dreamed that his first helicopter flight would be in a medevac at the age of 5. Shawn’s familiarity with flying and dream of going up in a helicopter helped to allay his fears of going alone. We flight-tracked the helicopter from its headquarters at The Ohio State University Airport (OSU) to the hospital’s helipad on my phone. He lit up when medevac pilot Jeff Hullinger came to the room, talked to him, and gave him a pin that was a replica of Monarch 1, the Nationwide Children’s Eurocopter EC145 helicopter that would transport him. While the flight nurses assessed and prepped Shawn, Hullinger and I discovered that we were both based at Lancaster’s Fairfield County Airport (LHQ) and had flown in the Washington, D.C., area years prior. Hullinger had retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as major after nearly 23 years of service. His last assignment was flying with the HMX-1 Presidential Helicopter Squadron in Quantico, Virginia.

Tracking the flight and talking to Hullinger gave us something calming to focus on. As our son describes it, he wasn’t afraid of flying without me because he had his favorite stuffed sloth, Sammy; the flight nurses tucked him in the stretcher like a baby with his favorite blanket.

Watching my son interact with the pilot and flight nurses put me at ease, but finding the common connection with Hullinger and learning his aviation background gave me a sense of peace. Hullinger and I exchanged contact information so that he could arrange a tour of the medevac’s headquarters at The Ohio State University Airport for my son once he was well. He even texted me while I was en route to Nationwide Children’s Hospital that they had landed safely, and the flight nurses had reported my son smiled the entire time.

Hullinger wished Shawn a speedy recovery, so I updated him a couple days later when my son was able to come off the BiPAP ventilation machine in the pediatric intensive care unit, letting him know that Shawn told everyone he had arrived at the hospital by helicopter. Hullinger again extended the offer to tour the medevac’s headquarters.

When we visited a few months later, my son proudly wore his Monarch 1 helicopter pin and painted Hullinger a picture of a helicopter with the words, “I luve you,” as a thank you. I am not sure who smiled more, Shawn or Hullinger, when they reunited. In his 10 years of flying critically ill pediatric patients for Nationwide Children’s Hospital through Metro Aviation Inc., Hullinger said Shawn is the first child he has been able to meet after the flight.

The visit further focused Shawn’s attention on helicopters instead of the memory of his critical condition that precipitated the flight. It allowed our son to explain the events of that evening and night to his 3-year-old sister in tangible detail from the back of Monarch 1. He filled in the gaps in a way she could understand what happened to her big brother after he had left the house to go to the doctor but ended up in the hospital for two days. It brought closure to my husband, who could thank the man who safely flew our son to the specialized care he needed. And the pilot? For someone who often meets families during times “that are likely the worst they have experienced with their children,” Hullinger was able to see the life he helped save and watch my son investigate every inch of the hangar and as much of the helicopter as he was permitted. He got to see our family—a grateful, thriving family thanks in part to his successful mission that night. He keeps Shawn’s painting at home on his dresser.