Would I be considered very cynical if I asked how much United Airlines have given? Considering how much Al saved them by his skill, I would have hoped that they made a substantial contribution.

I hope more donations come in soon enough for the transplant

Donation sent in & I pushed my company to make a donation as well.

*Back to the top*

Mike
 

I like it, getting the company to "help". Just out of interest does anybody know if United has been nudged and did they make a contribution......? Could all of you from the friendly sky's chase up HR at United to make a valid and solid contribution - after all Big Al delivered them a miracle - perhaps their help now could help return the gesture.

Update on the Funds for Laurie Status

Just had an update from Janice Hill, Mgr. of Communications at the National Foundation for Transplants. I have her e-Mail if you need or want it, just contact me.

Progress ... Janice indicates that thanks to YOUR generosity, there is now enough money available to go ahead with the operation ASAP. There is also some money over for post-operative support. Can there ever be enough... Only time will tell, but I know of one that I would feel very bad if that was the 10c worth that was missing - so if your heart is anywhere near your wallet - keep stocking up the fund. What is truly not needed for Laurie will be passed on to others in desperate need of help. Nothing will be wasted.

Thanks to those guys & girls who helped in the time of need, and thanks to all of you who are about to make your donation and top up the fund to give Laurie the absolutely best possible chance of survival - Laurie, her family and Big Al deserve it
** Back to the Top **


:cool:

Its been said before:
 

Why has not the UA Union acted in a more progressive way?

Just think that if every UA Pilot was asked to donate one days salary....problem is immeadiately solved.

http://www.friendsforlaurie.com/ Has some background.
NFT say that the response has been a record one. Well done all.

Get well soon Laurie.

Fantastic to hear that initial target has been reached. I know that I speak for everyone when I wish Laurie all the very best for her procedure and Post operative recovery. I truly hope that Laurie makes a full and expeditious recovery. All the best. DA111

Further Funds
 

Just visited Laurie's site, the needs are not over yet, but great response from everybody so far.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Back to the top.... :D

back to the top:ok:

out thoughts are with you
......get well soon !

Hero pilot's daughter gets transplant help

By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter


KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Al Haynes is helping his daughter Laurie Arguello to raise money for a bone-marrow transplant and aftercare she needs to survive aplastic anemia. They're shown here together last month in SeaTac.


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Laurie Arguello of SeaTac is learning that having a father who saved so many lives is a godsend in the effort to save her own.

On a summer day 15 years ago, her father and his flight crew piloted their failing United Airlines DC-10 away from certain doom and onto an Iowa runway. The emergency crash landing was fiery, but not fatal for 184 of the 296 people on board.

Now Arguello, 39, who has aplastic anemia, a potentially fatal blood disease, is managing her own trick on fate.

With her father, retired pilot Al Haynes of SeaTac, as emissary, Arguello has raised more than $256,000 for a bone-marrow transplant — much of it coming from survivors of Flight 232 who have come to revere Haynes not just for saving their lives but for his support in the months and years that followed.

"He has always had time for anyone connected with the crash," said Jerry Schemmel, a survivor who has gone on to become the radio announcer for the NBA's Denver Nuggets.

How to help


To make a tax-deductible donation to the medical fund for Laurie Arguello, or any of the other 500-plus patients on the National Foundation for Transplants registry, visit: www.transplants.org
To contribute by mail, write:
NFT for Laurie Arguello
P.O. Box 7781
Covington, WA 98042

For more information: www.friendsforlauri.com




"I've become more impressed with the man that he has become since the crash than the man he was in the cockpit that day."

Haynes guided Flight 232 to the Sioux City airport 45 minutes after an engine exploded and the steering was all but gone. He credits the teamwork of the flight and ground crews in averting a far greater disaster.

"How do you pay someone like that back? Well, the truth is, you can't," said survivor Joan Leonard Wernick of Colorado.

Word of Arguello's illness traveled fast, starting with a humble solicitation letter Haynes sent friends in late fall and spreading through national and local media coverage.

An official with the National Foundation for Transplants said she never before has seen a transplant patient raise so much money, so fast.

Many of the donations have come from those in the airline industry who regard Haynes' calm leadership in the cockpit as an act of heroism — although he has always demurred from such a characterization.



Pilot Al Haynes, shown in an undated file photo, is considered a hero by many of the passengers he saved after an engine exploded on a flight, damaging the plane's controls.


"My definition of a hero is someone who voluntarily puts his or her life in jeopardy to benefit other people," said Haynes, 72. "There's no way that we (the crew) voluntarily put ourselves in jeopardy. We just did our job and tried to get people on the ground."

Arguello, who is married and has a 9-year-old son, has two potential bone-marrow donors lined up, both strangers. A transplant could take place this spring.

"Whoever is her donor, now there's a hero," Haynes said. "That person is voluntarily doing something to save a life. Donors aren't necessarily putting themselves in jeopardy, but they could be."

Nothing is certain in bone-marrow transplants. The $256,000 that Arguello set as her fund-raising goal covers the transplant and after-care, but assumes an unlikely scenario that no complications will arise. As a result, she continues to raise money.

About 2,500 have contributed online, and she has a big shoebox filled with notes sent by donors through the mail. "I read a letter from someone whose friend didn't survive Flight 232," she said. "They made a donation in that person's name, which made me cry."


UPI, 1989
Sioux City, Iowa, police stand guard over the fuselage of United Airlines Flight 232 after it crashed-landed en route from Denver to Chicago.


Before she became ill, Arguello was working as a customer-service representative for a janitorial-services company in Sodo. In December 2001, she thought she was suffering from a bad case of the flu. Two weeks later, she was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, which occurs when bone marrow stops making enough blood cells. She has undergone more than 60 blood or platelet transfusions, but doctors say her best hope is a bone-marrow transplant. Her medical insurance is paying $100,000 toward a transplant, but she has to cover the minimum balance of $156,000 plus another $100,000 for after-care.

Arguello registered with the National Foundation for Transplants, which represents more than 500 patients across the country who are raising money for transplants. Before she even had her first official fund-raising event, a community garage sale and bake sale on Feb. 21, she had raised more than $256,000.

"Laurie understands that she's very blessed," said Nancy McGlocklin, a patient advocate for the Memphis-based transplant foundation. "She will be taken care of financially, but she is one out of 1,000."

Some patients die before raising enough money for a transplant, she said.

Arguello hopes her story inspires people to become organ, bone marrow and blood donors. McGlocklin said some who have visited the foundation's Web site to donate to Arguello have read the stories of other patients and contributed to their funds. Patients on the foundation's registry raised about $3 million last year.

"Laurie already has been a wonderful influence," she said.

But Haynes has been the instigator.

Since the accident, he has become a bit of a celebrity in the airline industry. A widely viewed training video highlights the experience of Flight 232.

The story of the flight also was adapted into a movie, with Charlton Heston playing Haynes. It was aired on television as "Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232," and released on video as "A Thousand Heroes."

Haynes returned to work as a pilot for two years after the crash and kept in contact with many of the survivors. Wernick said Haynes helped her conquer a fear of flying that followed the crash.

"He really reached out to all of the passengers and tried to help them get on with life. I just think that's the mark of a real hero," said Wernick, who was on the plane with her husband and young son, then 6 and now a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Since retiring in 1991, Haynes has given hundreds of motivational talks a year, using his experience on Flight 232 to instruct businesses and others on the importance of teamwork.

He has directed royalties from his talks into scholarship funds — two in memory of United employees who did not survive the crash. It was only after Arguello got sick that he considered tapping into his Flight 232 experience to benefit his own family.

"At first, it was a little hard," Haynes said. "I felt like I was taking advantage of a crash for my own benefit — and that's not right.

"But if you really look at it, something positive can come from that incident to help someone else, which is what I've been doing in raising money for scholarships. It's just another form of need."

An update. Glad to hear she's doing well thus far.

I hope that Capt Haynes daughter, Laurie, makes a full recovery. But let us not forget that there are many people who need bone marrow transplants. I donated last September and saved the life of a 2 year old boy, and I found it THE most rewarding experience of my life. The only discomfort I had was that it took me a little longer to walk to the pub and chip shop.

Cannot remember the phone number or internet site, but the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust is always on the look out for new volunteers

Chromium

Chromium,
Here's the reference:
http://www.anthonynolan.com/

I gave bone marrow about 5 years ago, a slightly uncomfortable but by no means the painful process that some would tell you it is.
Now I am 43+ years of age, I am deemed too old to be on the donation register, but I can still give blood until it stops flowing, and donate any other part of my body upon my demise.

All rather frustrating.

News from www.transplants.org


Campaign sets new NFT record


Some excerpts...

"Approximately $450,000 has been donated to NFT in honor of Laurie."

"The Airline Pilots Association, the Association of Flight Attendants, United and Delta Airlines quickly spread the word about the campaign."

"Donations have come from pilots who had always admired Haynes'courageous handling of the disaster over Iowa 15 years ago, people who have heard his talks over the years"

Tailwinds,
aviator

I am very proud of the fellow PPruners that made generous
donations and helped get out the message. :p :p :p

just wondering...
 

Am currently writing a report on the Sioux City crash, in fact it was the handling of the events that got me interested in human factors/behaviour.

I know the 'story' well yet it never ceases to amaze me how Al Haynes (as well as his crew) handled the tragedy.

The fact that Capt Haynes in interviews has NEVER done the 'why me' act, and comes across as a very modest, humble and truly compassionate man (as attested to by those who have met him and the crash survivors) is reason enough to help HIM in his time of need, as he helped so many others - more AFTER the crash than during, in fact...

Anyway to get to the point I am wondering if anyone knows how his daughter Laurie is progressing, and indeed how much was raised. Also are people continuing to donate for other recipients??

Truly an inspirational guy. All the best for Capt Haynes and his daughter...

Sky

PS - that poem was truly fitting, and brought a tear to my eye