CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Flight cancellations and delays continued to improve Sunday at the nation’s busiest airport.
A local medical team was among those caught up in the fallout from Friday’s winter storm.
The group volunteers for Heart Attack Ethiopia. The non-profit travels to Africa twice a year to perform surgeries on patients who’ve been stuck on a waiting list for help.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
Founder, and Piedmont Health Interventional Cardiologist, Dr. Tesfaye Telila, said the team scheduled 60 patients for operations this trip.
“Most of these are very young patients,” Telila. “These patients are pulled from the outskirts of Ethiopia, and they’ve been on the waiting list for long time.”
TRENDING STORIES:
- PHOTOS: Snow and conditions across metro Atlanta and North Georgia
- Winter storm: 4 Delta passengers injured after flight evacuates via slide at Atlanta airport
- Ice melting away as sun returns this afternoon but expect icy conditions Monday morning
The team was supported to take off from ATL at 9:00 am. A ground stop delayed the flight until 12:45 pm. Passengers were able to board. That’s when Dr. Telila spoke to Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco over video chat.
“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 canceled,” said Telila.
After waiting on the plane for six hours, the team learned the flight was canceled.
“The plan was to get there on Saturday do patient screening on Sunday and then start surgery on Monday, but, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we will be able to operate on Monday,” said Telila.
The team was able to fly out Saturday afternoon and landed in Africa Sunday afternoon.
The team will begin pre-operation appointments Monday. The trip was initially supposed to last two weeks, but they lost one day due to the weather.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
