ATLANTA — Poor weather conditions have delayed a medical team’s life-saving flight to Ethiopia.
The team of doctors and nurses were set to fly out from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport at 9:00 am Friday morning.
“Every minute kind of counts,” Dr. Tesfaye Telila explained to Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco.
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Dr. Telila is an interventional cardiologist at Piedmont Healthcare, and he founded Heart Attack Ethiopia. He and a team of volunteers travel to Africa twice a year to perform heart surgeries and procedures.
“Most of these are very young patients,” he said. “These patients are pulled from the outskirts of Ethiopia, and they’ve been on the waiting list for long time.”
During this trip, 60 patients are scheduled to receive treatment over the course of two weeks.
“They’re very eager to get this surgery done, and if we are delayed by a day that means so many patients will have to have their procedures cancelled,” said Telila.
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By 12:30 p.m., the team received a ray of hope: flight staff allowed them to board their plane.
“We’re all excited. The volunteers are here. Everyone is ready to go, and we’re going to save more lives than ever,” said Jon-Alan Manning.
They spent hours waiting on the plane after another ground stop was issued at the airport. Very few planes were permitted to take off during that time.
If the flight is able to leave on Friday, the medical team will arrive in Ethiopia on Saturday evening. Pre-op appointments can begin Sunday. Operations can begin Monday.
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