She isn’t a celebrity child with an extravagant lifestyle, yet frequent flights on a private plane have become the norm for Janina Muniz-Ortiz, a three-year-old with congenital bilateral cataracts, a cloudiness of the eye that can cause blindness. After enduring surgery at just one month old, Janina developed glaucoma in her right eye and her mother, Nydia Ortiz, was told her baby’s optic nerve was “unsteady.”

“The doctors told me she wouldn’t be able to see or would have very poor vision, especially in her right eye,” Ortiz recalls. “They didn’t give me much hope.” The family was referred to Bascum-Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, a four-hour drive south from their Orlando home, for weekly appointments. The family drove the long distance on Florida roadways before learning of Angel Flight Southeast, the Leesburg International Airport-based organization that “arranges free flights so children and adults can have access to the far-from-home doctors that can save their lives” through the efforts of volunteer pilots.

With travel time cut back to just 45 minutes, Janina, who has worn glasses since she was three months old, now receives the care she needs during her regularly-scheduled, biannual check-ups. “It would be very hard without Angel Flight,” said Ortiz, who quit her job to care for her daughter. “It’s been a humongous help financially. I feel safer, and it’s much quicker and easier.”

Glowing testimonials, like that of the Muniz-Ortiz family, makes Angel Flight CEO Steve Purello especially proud of the organization’s focus. “There’s only so much one person with one airplane can do, but we have over 650 volunteers so we have the work of a major airline,” he said. “Pilots are always looking for another excuse to fly.” And Angel Flight surely is an incredible excuse! Volunteer pilots donate use of their own aircrafts, fuel, and time, as well as pay for any maintenance on more than 3,000 coordinated flights each year ─ part of the more than 40,000 missions flown annually through Air Charity Network, of which Angel Flight is a member.

Patients who cannot financially afford transportation, or are otherwise unable to travel by other methods, are paired up with a pilot near their residence and flown to their lifesaving treatment destinations all over the country. Missions have been needed to facilitate chemotherapy, organ transplants, relocation of abuse victims, families receiving help from other charities (such as Ronald McDonald House), and humanitarian efforts. Purello joined Angel Flight in 1996 in New York where, in his first mission, he flew a cancer patient from rural Pennsylvania to Manhattan for medical care. Flying an average of twenty-five missions per year, often with his dog, Purello says some of the organization’s most memorable moments have surrounded some of the darkest times in American history, such as flying traumatologists in and out of New York City following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and flying supplies into New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Purello recalls another memorable flight in which he personally took to the skies, without warning at 3:30 am, when a former client whose body was rejecting recently transplanted lungs spiked a 106-degree fever. With Purello at the helm for the urgent Miami to Gainesville flight, the ill patient began convulsing before landing and Purello knew his role was vital to the situation. “I definitely had to bend policy on this one,” Purello admits of the immediate game plan. “Thankfully, the patient later called me and said I saved his life!”

Jennifer Boliek also knows that Angel Flight saved her own son’s life twelve years ago. Alex Zabukovec was born with supraventricular tachycardia, a defect that caused his heart to grow six extra nodes and beat rapidly without warning. “His heart rate rose over 200 beats per minute and it greatly fatigued the muscle,” Boliek said. “It was completely unhealthy for him.” At 17-months-old, Alex’s doctors determined he needed a cardiac ablation to remove the extra nodes, a surgery only two pediatric cardiologists in the country could perform. Boliek’s insurance suggested the family apply to Angel Flight for transportation to Nemours/Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. They were approved within the week. “It’s an absolutely top-notch organization,” Boliek declared of Angel Flight. “They gave us such personalized service. They had stuffed animals for Alex… they do everything to make patients as comfortable as possible.”

Alex was ‘cleared’ by cardiologists two years ago and is now an active child who loves to play soccer, baseball, and golf. To show their gratitude, the Bolieks, as members of the Leesburg Book Club, held an inaugural Labor Day BBQ on the Basin last summer where they raised $6,000 for Angel Flight. Purello was thrilled that the former clients selected the organization as the recipient. “Usually they (former clients) speak at one of our events, so this (impactful gesture) was greatly appreciated,” Purello said, adding that for every dollar donated, $10 is generated by the organization. “It was a no-brainer to choose Angel Flight for this fundraiser,” Boliek said. “It felt good to bring so much attention to a great organization.” For more information, visit  AngelFlightSE.org.