For Tandi, a year-round resident of Nantucket, the sound of a Boston MedFlight helicopter overhead is familiar.“When you hear it, you immediately think, somebody’s having a really bad day,” she says. “But at the same time, I think, thank goodness. They’re getting exactly where they need to be.”
Tandi knows firsthand just how lifesaving that flight can be.
Boston MedFlight has been there for her family twice—first when her own life was in danger after the birth of her oldest daughter, and again years later when her six-week-old daughter became seriously ill.
Eighteen years ago, Tandi gave birth to her first daughter, Shelbi, at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. What began as a routine delivery quickly became an emergency C-section, which was then further complicated when doctors discovered a tear in an artery in Tandi’s uterus.
By the time she reached recovery, Tandi was in danger of bleeding to death.
Doctors immediately brought her back into surgery and gave her eight units of blood—an especially fortunate circumstance, as the hospital happened to have received an additional blood shipment. But Tandi needed further treatment that was only available in Boston. Boston MedFlight was called to transport her to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
At the time, hospital policy did not allow newborn Shelbi to accompany her mother. Because Shelbi was doing well and needed to remain on Nantucket, Tandi’s husband, Preston, was left with an agonizing decision: stay with their newborn daughter, who Tandi had barely had a chance to meet, or travel to Boston to be with his wife.
He was also told there was a chance Tandi might not survive the flight.
“My husband had to make a choice—stay with her or go to Boston,” Tandi says. “Once he saw the Boston MedFlight crew come in and take me, he decided he would entrust Shelbi with the hospital staff and go to Boston to meet me there.”
Tandi remembers little after losing consciousness on Nantucket. Her next clear memory is waking up in the ICU in Boston, where she required additional blood and treatment. Eventually, she was able to return home to Nantucket—and to Shelbi.
“I was able to come back to Nantucket and be with my baby and raise her,” she says. “But if it wasn’t for Boston MedFlight, I could have died.”
Six years later, Tandi and Preston welcomed their second daughter, Piper. This time, Tandi delivered in Boston and returned home to Nantucket without complications. But when Piper was only about six weeks old, Tandi woke up in the middle of the night to find her burning with a high fever.
She rushed her to the emergency department on Nantucket. Because Piper was so young and not yet fully immunized, Tandi and Preston wanted her transferred somewhere that could provide a higher level of pediatric care.
Boston MedFlight was called again. This time, Tandi flew with Piper to Massachusetts General Hospital. Even after her first experience with Boston MedFlight, she was scared. But she also knew her daughter was in good hands.
“I knew that they would keep her safe, and I trusted them,” she says.
Tandi remembers a Boston MedFlight crew member explaining that, from where she was seated, she would not always be able to see Piper during the flight.
“But I can,” she remembers him telling her. “And I’m going to make sure that she is okay.”
For Tandi, that reassurance mattered.
“It kind of gave me permission to just let go of the worry for the few minutes that we were on that helicopter,” she says.
Piper spent four days in Boston receiving treatment and made a full recovery. Today, both of Tandi’s daughters are thriving.
For Tandi, both experiences also highlight the realities of living on Nantucket.
When someone needs care that is only available off-island, getting there is not as simple as getting in a car. Weather, ferry schedules and limited transportation options can all add complexity at a time when a patient may need advanced care quickly.
“You can’t just get in a car and drive there and check on us and come home at night,” Tandi says.
That is one reason Boston MedFlight’s presence means so much to her.
For years, Tandi knew Boston MedFlight simply as the team that had been there when her family needed it. She did not learn until much later that Boston MedFlight is a nonprofit. She wishes more people understood both how important that service is and that concerns about cost should never keep someone from accepting the critical care transport they need.
“I wish people knew that agreeing to the critical care that Boston MedFlight can provide is not a barrier,” she says. “They shouldn’t risk their health and their safety and their life.”
Nearly two decades after her first flight, Tandi still thinks about how different her life could have been.
“It’s definitely impacted how I approach motherhood,” she says. “I’m very aware of how fragile it is. It’s not a given.”
And when she hears Boston MedFlight overhead on Nantucket today, she knows someone else may be experiencing one of those moments when access to the right care changes everything.
