Making Health Care Accessible鈥擝y Air

Jun 10, 2021

Eileen Ambrosini moved to the small town of Atwater, California, in 1979. Over the next three decades she met her husband, raised her daughter, and worked as a high school French teacher, all in the heart of the state鈥檚 agricultural corridor.

But when Ambrosini was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, the town鈥檚 rural location and lack of specialized medical services left her no option but to drive upwards of six hours every Friday to receive treatment and counseling at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto.

Eileen Ambrosini lives in Atwater, California, in the San Joaquin Valley. “It’s 2 1/2 hours from Yosemite. It’s 2 1/2 hours from just about anything of interest,” she says. When Ambrosini was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, the town鈥檚 rural location and lack of specialized medical services left her no option but to drive upwards of six hours every week to receive treatment. Photo by Martin do Nascimento/Resolve Magazine.

鈥淚 was so exhausted after a while that I literally could not get out of bed on Saturday,鈥� Ambrosini says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how long I could have continued to do that. It was just taking too much from the energy that I didn鈥檛 have.鈥�

One day, Ambrosini overheard a fellow patient at the hospital talking about how they got to treatment every week鈥攁 nonprofit organization of volunteer pilots called .

Chris Bennett refuels his plane in Byron, California, after flying Eileen Ambrosini to treatment in Palo Alto and back. “It鈥檚 a very centering, grounding experience that allows me to combine a bunch of things that I enjoy all mixed together,” says Bennett. Photo by Martin do Nascimento/Resolve Magazine.

鈥淭he fundamental value that Angel Flight [West] offers is the ability to connect people in remote areas with advanced medical treatment,鈥� says Chris Bennett, a volunteer pilot with the organization. For the past four years, Bennett has regularly flown Ambrosini to and from treatment.

The Altamont Pass, connecting California’s San Francisco Bay Area to the San Joaquin Valley, was the most direct route for Ambrosini to travel to treatment in Palo Alto before she began flying with Angel Flight West. Photo by Martin do Nascimento/Resolve Magazine.

Bennett got his pilot鈥檚 certificate shortly after retiring from a career in tech and immediately decided to start volunteering to infuse his personal love of flying with the purpose of helping others.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very centering, grounding experience that allows me to combine a bunch of things that I enjoy all mixed together,鈥� he says.

鈥淣avigating health care is incredibly difficult even if you鈥檙e not ill and you don鈥檛 have chemo brain and you鈥檙e well-educated,鈥� says Josh Olson, Executive Director of Angel Flight West. 鈥淲e really just want to take that one piece away and say, ‘Hey, we’ll get you there and back. You don’t need to worry about that. You worry about healing and your family and making the most of your time.’鈥� Photo by Martin do Nascimento/Resolve Magazine.

The estimates that transportation challenges prevent 3.6 million Americans from receiving medical care each year. Of those cases, the estimates that 25,000 public benefit flights, such as those operated by Angel Flight West, take place every year in the United States.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the best of all possible worlds,鈥� says Ambrosini, 鈥渂ecause I live in a very peaceful area, but then I know every Friday [鈥 or whenever it is I need to get back to Palo Alto, it鈥檚 the 10 minutes to the Air Force base, and that鈥檚 [all of] my driving.鈥�

This story and video were originally produced for and published by . They appear here with permission.

Martin do Nascimento is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Oakland, California. He is a trilingual returned Peace Corps Volunteer and journalism has taken him around the world. His work has been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, ProPublica, Frontline, AJ+, Cosmopolitan, News Photographer magazine, National Public Radio, Seeker, NBC News, Telemundo, Univisi贸n, The Dallas Morning News, The Texas Tribune and elsewhere.