Healthcare hero

Excerpt from ‘Healthcare Heroes Nevada 2009’

“We live for happy endings,” says McGee.  “The people we help are the miracles, their stories keep us going.  Given the growing costs of health care today and how often illnesses can lead to monetary troubles, the need and demand for the Miracle Flights for Kids program has never been greater.  When you think about it, everyone knows of someone whose family is struggling with a serious health problem.  No child in America should be denied proper medical treatment because of money.”

A woman with big ideas, tremendous drive, and a huge heart, Ann McGee has spent her life seeking ways to help make the lives of seriously ill children and their families just a little easier.

 Twenty-four years ago she recognized the need for the coordination of aviation services that could provide no cost transportation for blood, donor organs, and to quickly deliver sick children to medical facilities around the country. 

 Today, more than 60 thousand flights and 31 million miles later, Miracle Flights for Kids is the nation’s leading nonprofit medical flight organization.  Children from 39 different countries have been helped and the program continues to grow through individual donations, corporate sponsorships, and grants.

 After more than two decades Mcgee, the founder and president of one of the largest and most successful philanthropic flight organizations in the country, says she’s learned a few things over the years.

 “Probably the most important insight I’ve gained is just how significant a second opinion is.  Over the past 22 years, I’ve borne witness time and again to children who were suffering and even made worse from a misdiagnosis. Through the miracle of flight however, they were able to see that one specialist who could help them get better.  We want families across America to know the Miracle Flights for Kids program is here for them.”