Fridays 10:00am - 11:00am (EDT)
EPISODE SUMMARY:
Concerned global citizens and philanthropists interested in learning about the issues in Haiti and ways to support a unique, and critical solution to its health care crisis.
Haiti Air Ambulance is dedicated to providing life-saving air medical transportation to critically ill and injured individuals throughout Haiti, regardless of their financial circumstances. As the country’s only nonprofit helicopter emergency medical service, we are committed to enhancing access to timely, high-quality healthcare by bridging the gap between remote areas and medical facilities. Our mission is to support Haiti’s health infrastructure by collaborating with hospitals, clinics, and first responders, ensuring that
every person in need has rapid access to essential care. Through our services, we strive to reduce mortality rates, improve patient outcomes, and foster a healthier, more resilient nation. Our commitment extends to building local capacity, empowering communities through training, and promoting long-term, sustainable healthcare solutions for all Haitians
Organization: Haiti Air Ambulance
Website: www.haiti-air-ambulance.org
#PhilanthropyInPhocus #HaitiAirAmbulance #EmergencyHealthcare #MedicalTransport #GlobalHealth #HealthcareAccess #SupportHaiti #TommyDiMisa
Tune in for this sensible conversation at TalkRadio.nyc
00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:47.000 Tommy DiMisa: We're back. It's your boy, Tommy, d.
00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:58.750 Tommy DiMisa: From my attic 2 flights up from the kitchen. The show is philanthropy and focus. If you've been paying attention for the last, I don't know. 4 years. Every single Friday morning I come up here to the attic.
00:00:58.750 --> 00:01:26.870 Tommy DiMisa: and I help nonprofits tell their story and amplify their message, and if it wasn't for the relationships I have as the nonprofit sector connector. If it wasn't for the connections I've made over the years with thought leaders in the space with people who lead organizations with people who consult with organizations. Well, I wouldn't be able to bring you all these guests, so if it wasn't for my friend David Goldstein from Sir Tillman Ballen, which is a Major Long Island based law firm. If it wasn't for knowing David and becoming friends with David, and
00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:45.990 Tommy DiMisa: I guess in solidarity we root for the New York Metropolitans. It's been a rough month for the New York mets. I mean, it hasn't been a rough month. It's been just. It's a sad week since last Sunday when I was at City Field, and the Mets did not win, and that ended the season. It was a great season, but David Goldstein's, a friend of mine invited me to an event out in the Hamptons.
00:01:45.990 --> 00:02:03.779 Tommy DiMisa: which is great when you got a handful of linen suits, and you're going to go out to the Bougie Hamptons for an event. You know it's good. You have the right gear. So David invited me out, and I met the team from an organization called Haiti Air Ambulance, and David Ellis, executive director, is here. Good morning, David. How are you.
00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:05.590 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Hey? Good morning, great to see you.
00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:29.079 Tommy DiMisa: Great to see you. We got a lot to cover today. There's a couple of things I got to cover up front, and then we'll get into the conversation with David and what this organization is all about. But just to stay on that point about relationships and connections. If it wasn't for the people I know. A friend of mine, Greg Levine, from Mcbride, consulting, sent me an article last night, and then posted it on Linkedin. I think the article to look it up real quick. But I think it was in the Journal.
00:02:29.350 --> 00:02:47.740 Tommy DiMisa: and it was about connecting and relationship building and networking about connectors. I'll find the article for you guys in a second. But you know to be thought of as somebody who's who is a connector. And people think of me that way is really a big deal, and I and I value that. And I thought about that this morning, because now there's a post with me tagged on it on Linkedin.
00:02:48.078 --> 00:02:58.809 Tommy DiMisa: I think it's so important for us to develop these relationships. Nurture these relationships last night was North Shore TV's gala shout out to North Shore TV, my friend Erica Bradley. I was at that event
00:02:59.140 --> 00:03:10.999 Tommy DiMisa: pretty soon. We're going to start a new TV show over there so soon. More to come on that a couple of things I got to cover this coming Tuesday today is the 25th of October of 2024. As I stand here with you.
00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:33.750 Tommy DiMisa: and October 29th next Tuesday I will be in New York City at Costavinos for the New York City. Imagine awards 4th annual New York City. Imagine awards, if you haven't got your ticket yet, hurry up and do that. nycimagineawards.com rolling right into the Long Island. Imagine awards because the applications are available right now, and the application deadline. If you are a nonprofit and doing work in Nassau, Suffolk County
00:03:33.750 --> 00:03:34.989 Tommy DiMisa: on Long Island.
00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:58.759 Tommy DiMisa: the applications are due on the 25th of November. So you have this coming Tuesday is the New York City. Imagine awards and the applications where you would set up for Long Island. Imagine awards, go to imagineawardsli.com so nycimagineawards.com or imagineawardsli.com or connect with me Tommy D. At philanthropy, and focus PHOC. us.com
00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:20.979 Tommy DiMisa: philanthropyinfocus.com, or hit me up on on Instagram. I like the Instagram I do. It's it's fun, Tommy, d dot Nyc, all right. So let's let's move into. I get to go out to the Hamptons. I learn about an organization that I didn't know anything about called Haiti Air Ambulance, and you know my friend David says to me, Tommy D. This is Saturday evening.
00:04:20.980 --> 00:04:39.050 Tommy DiMisa: I know it's a family day, and things like that, but it's important to me, and when my friends and colleagues say it's important, I have to do what I can to see if I can make it work. And I was able to meet the team. There was representatives from the organization there. There was representative from Northwell, health there, and
00:04:39.060 --> 00:04:45.000 Tommy DiMisa: you know I don't want to say I was an outsider, David Ellis, but I didn't. I was not aware of your organization.
00:04:45.370 --> 00:04:54.259 Tommy DiMisa: You and I spoke for a couple of minutes earlier this week, and I and I said to you, you know I wasn't even aware of very much that goes on in Haiti.
00:04:55.510 --> 00:05:20.240 Tommy DiMisa: So I did some research this week to just see some of the I don't know for lack of better word challenges that go on in Haiti. I don't know how to say. I don't want to be too bold, but you know I see gang violence. I see. Just I think the Dominican Republic has 10,000 folks that are being pushed out on a daily basis from the Dr. Into Haiti. That I guess so. Those are maybe originally
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:28.360 Tommy DiMisa: Haitian folks that moved into Dr. For probably for the need to get away from some of the violence. There's so much there.
00:05:28.610 --> 00:05:32.182 Tommy DiMisa: When I learned about what your organization was doing.
00:05:33.100 --> 00:05:38.560 Tommy DiMisa: I was so taken because it seems like, so it what you're doing is so important.
00:05:38.580 --> 00:05:44.639 Tommy DiMisa: and there's so much need in Haiti. So I want to get into all that. But as we do on this show.
00:05:44.860 --> 00:06:08.710 Tommy DiMisa: I want to hear about David Ellis. I want to know about your background. I mean. I looked up some of the stuff you've done on Linkedin, you know, from your background in healthcare, I mean with, I got to look at up how to say it, but maybe you'll just correct me. But the experience in helicopters, as it relates to healthcare over the years and things like that, and then how does that that progression get you to this particular organization? So
00:06:08.710 --> 00:06:20.810 Tommy DiMisa: I always say to my guests, what brought you to this work? What was it? Was it? Was it? I need to be in the nonprofit sector, was it? I need to be in healthcare? There's always a story there. I'd like to hear your story, David Ellis. How's that sound?
00:06:21.320 --> 00:06:22.909 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, it's great. Let's do it.
00:06:23.080 --> 00:06:36.150 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, yeah, it all comes back to the the airframe and power plant mechanics class was was full, and I got bored waiting on that to start, and I went to night shift Emt class and never got back to the regular program.
00:06:36.150 --> 00:06:36.570 Tommy DiMisa: That true.
00:06:36.570 --> 00:07:01.640 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, get it in 1995, right? Yeah, yeah. So. And then, you know, my, I remember my original Emt book had a helicopter on the front of it, and I didn't even know such a thing exists. And even, you know, in the 19 nineties it wasn't that common. But I literally looked at that and said, You know this is what I want to go, do. And I was. I was dumb enough as a 18 year old to tell all of my seasoned instructors. I'm going to go. Be on the helicopter. And I was
00:07:01.900 --> 00:07:12.819 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: laughed out of the classroom several times, probably justifiably so. And but I you know that was that was really my whole goal along was the the helicopter air ambulance piece was just really fascinating to me.
00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:16.490 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and I, you know I worked every every angle possible
00:07:16.876 --> 00:07:33.830 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and and was fortunate to have a wonderful woman that hired me as a very, very young paramedic. She never should have done that. Shout out Deb. My flight, mom, thanks. Thanks much for that. That career break you gave me. But I did get did get into helicopters in the Us.
00:07:34.211 --> 00:07:37.199 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Had to move halfway across the country to originally do it.
00:07:37.752 --> 00:07:47.130 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: But you know, just just work through that industry for for quite a while in the Us. You know, ended up managing a a number of different flight programs.
00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:51.420 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: And then in 2014,
00:07:51.500 --> 00:08:17.040 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you saw just a Facebook post of this, this group in Haiti that had a helicopter was asking for volunteers, and you were really possessive in the the helicopter realm. If you work for one service, you can't go work for you just automatically go work for another service. Everything you have to. You start over just like you're brand new and and go through orientation. So a place, especially in another country that would just let you come volunteer for a couple of weeks was was really fascinating. So
00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:21.140 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: jumped on that bandwagon pretty quick, went down over Thanksgiving 2014
00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:27.279 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and really fell in love with the place. You know, the healthcare in the United States is is so corporate.
00:08:27.420 --> 00:08:44.959 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: I mean, yes, you are helping people. But in reality most of the time you're just making money for somebody else. That's just that's just how it is, you know, and coming to a place that's pure philanthropy that we're just helping the the most underserved of the underserved people, and making a gigantic difference in somebody's life that didn't have any other
00:08:46.490 --> 00:08:51.489 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know no other option where the only only chance they've got was really fascinating. So
00:08:51.540 --> 00:09:00.990 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: I ended up being a serial volunteer for a number of years. Came down a bunch of times. Ended up taking a contract leadership spot
00:09:02.190 --> 00:09:17.049 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: a couple of different times and then was fortunate in in 2020, when the executive director role was open that they called and asked if I would be interested in in assuming that full time. And of course I was. So that leads us to here.
00:09:17.050 --> 00:09:26.770 Tommy DiMisa: Awesome. I want to go back a little bit, because 1st of all, life is so wild when literally you couldn't get into the what was the class that was closed out that you got into the Emt.
00:09:26.770 --> 00:09:33.419 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: It's the. It's the Aircraft Mechanics class which is crazy because I hate doing anything mechanical. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I was 18, so probably.
00:09:33.420 --> 00:09:48.630 Tommy DiMisa: You were 18. Let's be honest, man. I don't know that you were thinking. I know I wasn't thinking until I was about 35. So so you you have this path. You could have been in that class. You're not. And then life, you know. Life's funny how it it kind of puts us in front of something or something in front of us
00:09:48.640 --> 00:09:50.910 Tommy DiMisa: for an opportunity. What?
00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:55.030 Tommy DiMisa: Even before we get to Haiti and before we get to Haiti Air Ambulance.
00:09:56.400 --> 00:10:03.199 Tommy DiMisa: I mean the adrenaline. In doing this work, I mean, I think of you know, people in healthcare
00:10:03.290 --> 00:10:21.249 Tommy DiMisa: I was I was with. I was at this event last night for North Shore TV, and they're on the campus, the studios on the campus of Northwell, which here in New York, Northwell, is the big Behemoth healthcare system, Long Island, New York City, up to up to upstate New York. And really
00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:31.120 Tommy DiMisa: being there like last night, seeing all this, I got to. They were showing some videos because it was the 40th anniversary of this organization. They were showing some videos as it related to Covid
00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:41.848 Tommy DiMisa: and 1st responders and things like that. And I just wonder. I see people. I've seen people in the emergency department, sometimes fictional on TV and sometimes in real life. See these things?
00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:59.849 Tommy DiMisa: The adrenaline must be incredibly pumping, you know you're you're have. You're there to save people's lives. And then you throw in. Oh, and we're in a helicopter, too, like it's not. It's right. Tell me about that. And and just, you know, not to say you do it for the adrenaline. But it's just you're in the in the moment. What's what's that? Feel like.
00:11:00.390 --> 00:11:25.550 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Not a lot of us do actually do it for the adrenaline a little bit. But you know it's it's, you know, there's some terribly embarrassing stories. I could tell them myself, which I probably won't, you know, when I was really young you get in those huge incidents, and you kind of freak out a little bit and start screaming on the radio or something. But you know, I think that as you mature a little bit in the business. That's 1 of the things that you really learn to do is just be the voice of calm, be, you know you might be
00:11:25.550 --> 00:11:49.830 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: 600 miles an hour on the inside. But you know, personally kind of my my tactic was was the the worse it got, the slower I would feel like I was moving, and the slower I would talk, and you've got to press all that down and and call everything down reality. You're still moving pretty quick, but but you you know, you actively control all that, and that that also kind of becomes a point of pride to where it's just absolute chaos, and you can just
00:11:50.400 --> 00:11:53.330 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: appear to be completely unfazed. Just
00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:58.880 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: have control, you know. Be the person in the room that that knows what to do, and knows what we're going to do next, and.
00:11:59.160 --> 00:11:59.950 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.
00:12:00.060 --> 00:12:10.319 Tommy DiMisa: yeah, I think that's critically important to think about, too. Because if I'm the patient or I'm in need, and you're freaking out. And you're the guy that's supposed to be helping me out. Man, I'm not feeling too good, brother.
00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:11.430 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Unhelpful, you know.
00:12:11.430 --> 00:12:29.569 Tommy DiMisa: No, you're not exactly helping the situation, but if you calm it down, and you're very deliberate with language and things like that, right, or even deliberate with, like the actions and things I'm going to go. Wow! This guy knows what he's doing. Otherwise, if he's jumping around his hair like on fire. Then we're in trouble here. If he doesn't, if he's not in control or she's not in control right?
00:12:29.880 --> 00:12:55.220 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: If if you think about what what the helicopter does here in the Us. You know you're not the first, st the 1st person responding, you know, another agency has called you other paramedics have called you because the situation is bad enough that they need help, and you know, getting in the back of the the ambulance to tell them out, and you being the one that's freaking out, you should be calling them down, you know you bring the piece in the call and the solutions here. It's gonna be all right, you know. Let's let's work through this. Yeah, yeah.
00:12:55.220 --> 00:12:55.760 Tommy DiMisa: How?
00:12:56.640 --> 00:12:59.889 Tommy DiMisa: how big are these helicopters that you're you like? How many
00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:06.149 Tommy DiMisa: tell me about that? Because I what about the equipment? Not, you know generally, and then specifically what what we have with Haiti air ambulance.
00:13:06.850 --> 00:13:23.910 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, it's it's it's like flying a patient trying to work in a coffin. It's very, very, very small. Yeah. You know, in in, you know. Most ambulances, you know you've got. You've got, you know, reasonable amount of space but just because of the size and the weight restrictions and everything in a helicopter. It is very
00:13:24.795 --> 00:13:26.285 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: very small.
00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:41.169 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know. I call it having to perform helicopter aerobatics, you know, stuff that you would do an ambulance that you can move around and get done, even if it's starting an Iv. In somebody's arm or managing an airway. Heaven forbid you have to do. Cpr, it is. It is just difficult to to pull off
00:13:41.495 --> 00:13:45.749 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and again, it's just another skill that you learn. But yeah, it's it's a very
00:13:45.810 --> 00:13:58.230 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: compressed environment. You want to be able to stay, seat belted in the whole time and and restrain and stay safe, but still be able to do patient care. So yeah, it's a it's it's, you know, you and your you and your best couple of your best friends, with a really sick person in a closet.
00:13:58.230 --> 00:13:58.889 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, it's
00:14:01.050 --> 00:14:04.379 Tommy DiMisa: you know. What man? Well, who wouldn't sign up for that? That's it, for sure.
00:14:04.380 --> 00:14:05.350 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Right? Great. Yeah.
00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:32.709 Tommy DiMisa: So we're we're gonna get into some stories and things like that. We want to get into the vision of the organization. Really, the impact that the organization's making ultimately, we always get into. How can we help? How can we be part of the solution? So we'll, we'll be setting up for that. We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. I want you to take us through. Kind of you know it was 2,014. You're a volunteer. I want to know what that felt like as a volunteer, you know. And then we're gonna talk about what David Ellis, the executive director sees, and that through that lens.
00:14:32.710 --> 00:14:40.709 Tommy DiMisa: But really, just what you know, what, what it's all about, what the what the flair of this organization is. And the impact we're making. How's that sound?
00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:42.200 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Sounds, great.
00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:48.259 Tommy DiMisa: We will be right back. This is philanthropy and focus. I am your friend, the one and only nonprofit sector, Connector Tommy D. Right back.
00:17:00.190 --> 00:17:02.070 Tommy DiMisa: 1st segment. I'll tell you this gang.
00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:03.920 Tommy DiMisa: if you ever
00:17:03.930 --> 00:17:08.929 Tommy DiMisa: get wait, listed or locked out of a class that you thought you wanted to be in.
00:17:09.410 --> 00:17:18.881 Tommy DiMisa: Take it as an opportunity, because in some cases it can create the rest of your life, your entire career, you know. I don't know David Ellis. You remember this movie? It was called
00:17:19.500 --> 00:17:24.690 Tommy DiMisa: Sliding Doors, I think it was called, or it was a movie. Where this woman
00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:30.429 Tommy DiMisa: is it it? She takes 2 trails. The movie has like 2 stories. She makes the subway train
00:17:30.530 --> 00:17:40.490 Tommy DiMisa: and she gets on the train before it leaves and she misses it, and then the trajectory of the 2 different lives that she could have had. She makes the train. She goes home, she catches her partner cheating on her.
00:17:40.660 --> 00:18:03.520 Tommy DiMisa: and that goes in that whole story. She misses the train, and that whole situation is cleaned up before she gets there. And then there's that whole story. I think it's called sliding doors. Well, maybe somebody will help me out. We'll have that answer for you. If not Google it gang. I don't know. You have the Internet. But what a what a world! Where just these different things that happen to us totally change the trajectory of where we go and what we do. And really.
00:18:04.050 --> 00:18:16.099 Tommy DiMisa: equally as importantly, the impact we make. Because now you're leading this organization as the executive director. And you know, do you ever think about that like? What if you got in that class like? What? What if you were a mechanic?
00:18:17.260 --> 00:18:23.020 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: I, you know as much as I hate even changing my own oil. I think it would have been terrible, so very fortunate.
00:18:23.260 --> 00:18:26.279 Tommy DiMisa: So so you might not have lasted very long in that class, anyhow.
00:18:26.556 --> 00:18:34.939 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: No, I know, in looking at at the mechanics that we have now, and how meticulous they are, and extremely detail oriented. I think that would have would have not worked out great for me. So.
00:18:34.940 --> 00:18:43.833 Tommy DiMisa: Fair enough. So so you do realize it for sure. So so let's get there. It's 2,014 you're volunteering. How does that work when you said that the
00:18:44.410 --> 00:18:53.520 Tommy DiMisa: I don't know how you refer to the the groups, but like the crew, or something you said are very possessive. So you didn't. So the fact that you were able to get in as a volunteer
00:18:53.560 --> 00:18:57.590 Tommy DiMisa: with Haiti Air ambulance down in 2014,
00:18:58.080 --> 00:19:04.170 Tommy DiMisa: did you? As you were volunteering. Were you still working somewhere else, or were you strictly volunteer like? What is that all about.
00:19:04.330 --> 00:19:29.340 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Oh, yeah, they just took a took a couple of weeks off work. To go down. And I mean, it's you know, we're each each service in the Us. You know, when I, when I say possessive, is very you know, just because there's 2 helicopters in one town doesn't mean that you could just walk across the street and pick up shift on the other one. You know it's it's the same job, and people don't want to admit that everybody thinks they're better, everybody else. That's just that's just not reality. You know it. It is the same deal. But you know you, you typically can't just move between places. So the fact that
00:19:29.340 --> 00:19:44.489 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: these guys were running a helicopter ambulance in another country and they were soliciting volunteers. It's really really neat, so I thought I would have the best chance of getting picked if I went over the holidays I picked going down for about 14 days over Thanksgiving.
00:19:44.902 --> 00:19:55.079 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: They did call me back, and and I went down. It's kind of, you know, into the unknown, I I mean, similar to what you expressed earlier. I didn't know much about Haiti. It was kind of an uncontrolled environment, but
00:19:55.430 --> 00:20:19.650 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: jumped on a plane went down. I had a great experience. The the folks that had started the the air ambulance down there, I mean, did a spectacular job, you know we've always been and still are, you know it's not. It's not a service that's oh, it's just just Haiti kind of mindset, and we do everything to us standards. People try and send me expired medication and stuff it's like, no, no, no, we don't. You don't use that in the Us. We won't use it in Haiti. But
00:20:19.650 --> 00:20:34.941 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: yeah, that starts off from from everybody that that initiated the service was. It's always been very top notch. It's always been been very focused on high quality. Just because you're a Haitian citizen doesn't mean you should get anything less than than anybody else in the world would get. So we've always tried to be
00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:40.269 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: very high end. And in some cases I think we do some stuff that would be unusual even in the Us.
00:20:40.320 --> 00:20:42.330 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Because of the the environment. So.
00:20:42.330 --> 00:20:45.219 Tommy DiMisa: So give me an example of what's an what would be unusual.
00:20:45.220 --> 00:20:49.139 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: We're you know we're doing. We've got a a portable
00:20:49.150 --> 00:20:57.799 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: laboratory machine. Essentially, we can do your blood labs in the field. You know, partially as a service to the patient, so we can help fix you, but also as a service to the hospitals.
00:20:57.810 --> 00:21:03.039 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: A lot of hospitals don't have a lab in-house, you know. You may take a sick patient. The doctor's gonna take 24 h to get
00:21:03.110 --> 00:21:14.079 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: labs back to really be able to treat the patient. So we decided a few years ago, if we were able to do that in the helicopter, that you know, we do a great service to not only the patients, but to the physicians that are receiving
00:21:14.260 --> 00:21:27.190 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: the patient, and you know it is. It is done some in the United States, certainly not widespread, but just different things like that. The environment there lends itself to to make sure that we're doing the best that we can for our patients and our our partners.
00:21:27.380 --> 00:21:41.527 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah. So I thank you for that. I shared the website while we were at break. And the website, everybody is Haiti air ambulance.org haiti air ambulance.org. ORG, so let's
00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:44.280 Tommy DiMisa: You know
00:21:44.420 --> 00:22:02.929 Tommy DiMisa: the difference is like you talked about like that piece about the labs that you that are done in the helicopter, meaning like the patient, shows up and the labs are already done. So because, you know, we're talking about emergent situations obviously right. And then the thing I wanted to pull that I saw on the website is
00:22:02.970 --> 00:22:04.340 Tommy DiMisa: it could take
00:22:04.490 --> 00:22:12.280 Tommy DiMisa: in Haiti. Travel to medical care can be a brutal trip, lasting up to 12 h. In some areas.
00:22:12.490 --> 00:22:22.280 Tommy DiMisa: your donation. This is on the website. It makes it possible for us to provide lifesaving helicopter transport that reduces that travel time to 24 min.
00:22:22.390 --> 00:22:27.519 Tommy DiMisa: 12 h to 24 min in emergent situations. David. Else right? I mean.
00:22:27.560 --> 00:22:32.850 Tommy DiMisa: most of these folks. You're you're gonna you don't have 12 h to to get to care. Right?
00:22:33.050 --> 00:22:33.690 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.
00:22:34.580 --> 00:22:44.169 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, there's certainly cases we can't get to that. You know that that expire before we can get there. You'll see a lot of a lot of cases particularly get up into some really rural areas where somebody that's
00:22:44.290 --> 00:23:02.720 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: got a pretty serious, painful injury. And the only way you can get around is on the back of a motorcycle. So they're holding on to somebody else bouncing through, you know, over these trails and stuff, just to get try and get to the 1st medical provider they can find, much less, you know, definitive medical here. So that's a big piece that we're we're trying to help with and and help prevent those trips from having to happen.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:21.540 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah. Yeah. And so 2,000 patients have benefited from the work that your organization has done, that. It tells me. Here's some statistics, 124 rural clinics and major hospitals depend on us for patient transport. That's a lot, man. How many, I think I knew this from when I met you all in the Hamptons. But how many.
00:23:21.740 --> 00:23:23.840 Tommy DiMisa: how many helicopters do you have right now?
00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:42.759 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: So we run one helicopter, one crew right now. Covering the the entire. You know, 12 million population. So we're you know, we got no competition. We're the only only, you know, philanthropy helicopter in the in the country that's flying patients. Yeah. So it's we're we cover the the whole country from our base. There in Port-au-prince.
00:23:42.760 --> 00:23:49.490 Tommy DiMisa: That's unbelievable, and you also. So it's not only patient care. If I'm if I remember correctly, it's bringing in supplies and different things like that as well.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:24:10.619 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah. I mean, if you look at Port-au-prince in the situation right now, essentially, it's an island. We've got armed gangs that have all the roads blocked on all sides of the city, you know, in a country with 2 international airports, one far up in the north, and then Port-au-prince, where pretty much everything comes in. Distribution of any supplies of any type is very difficult.
00:24:10.650 --> 00:24:27.949 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Given the condition on the road. So you know, as as the situation's changed in the last couple of years. Our mission has changed a little bit. So we are, you know, using this resource we've got. That's very rare in the country. There's only a couple of helicopters that exist there at all, and and we're certainly the only air ambulance
00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:57.350 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: but we have really moved into. We've moved a lot of physicians, you know. You get these doctors that are, you know, very critical to operation of different hospitals, being able to get them to and from a hospital in particular, I mean, a few weeks ago we flew Haiti's only cardiologist, out to do an assessment on a set of conjoined twins that were born that really needed their assessment done. And so that was that was kind of a unique case, but certainly something that we're happy to help with.
00:24:57.350 --> 00:25:02.289 Tommy DiMisa: I have to pause you for a second. This is an island of did you say 12 million people.
00:25:02.290 --> 00:25:03.400 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Around, 12, yeah.
00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:06.300 Tommy DiMisa: And you said Haiti's only cardiologist.
00:25:06.860 --> 00:25:07.390 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Correct.
00:25:07.390 --> 00:25:17.979 Tommy DiMisa: For the for all these people is one cardiologist folks. What what are we doing? World? What exactly are we doing here like? I don't understand this situation, I don't. I I you know I
00:25:18.280 --> 00:25:47.340 Tommy DiMisa: what's going on around this planet right now blows my mind to be honest with you, David Ellis with all the things, and this is not a political show, and I'm not going to get into any of this stuff gang. We're not doing it. We don't do it here, but I don't understand, as a race of human beings, that this is what this is like. This is. The best we got is what we're going is we're showing up with really, I don't know, David. I just rant. Sometimes I get up on my soapbox because it makes me sad. I don't understand. I don't understand how this is a thing I used to go. I don't understand how some person could, you know, live on the street
00:25:47.340 --> 00:26:01.819 Tommy DiMisa: and be eating out of a trash can, and 50 yards away somebody's paying $150 for a steak. I don't understand that, but then you take that and you extrapolate that over this whole planet. And you know that individual who's who's finding a meal in a trash can
00:26:02.220 --> 00:26:05.829 Tommy DiMisa: on tragically is better off than people in another part of the world. It it.
00:26:05.830 --> 00:26:06.630 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: That's true.
00:26:06.630 --> 00:26:11.679 Tommy DiMisa: You know what I'm saying, and that makes me angry, and it makes me sad, and I don't have the solutions, but
00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:19.780 Tommy DiMisa: to see organizations like yours that are doing this great work. To know this one cardiologist. How important is
00:26:20.430 --> 00:26:23.710 Tommy DiMisa: the relationships that an organization like yours
00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:25.090 Tommy DiMisa: has with.
00:26:25.280 --> 00:26:29.819 Tommy DiMisa: I would guess people from the United Nations political folks to be able to.
00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:52.190 Tommy DiMisa: I just to be protected for lack of a better way. I mean, like one of the things I saw is, I think it was a UN. Helicopter, was just shot down or shot at. I don't think it was shot down, but shot at in the last 48 h. The gang violence. You talk about the uncontrollable nature of what I think. That's the way you said it. It's an uncontrollable situation, or it's out of control.
00:26:53.590 --> 00:26:59.360 Tommy DiMisa: how important are those ties and those relationships and those networks to not only
00:26:59.860 --> 00:27:04.199 Tommy DiMisa: grant access to what you all are doing, but also from a protection perspective.
00:27:05.430 --> 00:27:11.029 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, it's a i mean a couple of different aspects there. I mean the the relationships. That's that's 1 thing that we offer.
00:27:11.060 --> 00:27:14.049 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: You know any, any healthcare provider that that
00:27:14.220 --> 00:27:42.159 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: needs our services, you know. If you think about it, you're in a small clinic. There's 1, maybe 2 providers there, and and there's no requirement for care if you show up at a hospital in Haiti, so we can't. You know, in the United States we get the fire department shut down an intersection. We landed your accident. I pick you up. We go to the Trauma Center. We'll tell them 5 min before we get there, hey? We're coming with this trauma patient boom all done, you know, it's not the requirement in Haiti. You have to have acceptance from a physician. You have to have sure that the bed's available. You have to make sure if there's any payment arrangements, all that's done before the patient shows up.
00:27:42.160 --> 00:28:01.020 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: So that is a service we've got. You know, a number of communication specialists that are really just magicians. The stuff that they get done so quickly is just amazing. There's only a couple hospitals that are kind of kind of comprehensive in Haiti that cover most things. But our communication specialists keep track of.
00:28:01.330 --> 00:28:29.079 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know where the different physicians are. And this week this hospital can take care of this type patient, you know, and really help us with with placing those patients and take that that load off of a provider out in the field that's trying to, you know. I mean, if you'd imagine trying to take care of a sick person and make dozens of phone calls trying to figure out somebody that will take them, you know. That's a huge service that we offer to to take that off like I said, with our com specs that somehow keep up with with all that information and and just magically make it happen. But a lot of that
00:28:29.090 --> 00:28:52.360 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: is, you know, we, I think one thing that we do trying to stay safe is specifically stay out of politics, because if you're on the right side of politics at some point in Haiti. You're going to be on the bad side of politics at another point. So you know, staying very neutral. We're here just to help people, I think, after you know, over 10 years now, we've got great, great brand recognition. Everybody knows that we're there to help.
00:28:52.480 --> 00:29:18.390 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: You know what happened yesterday with the UN. Helicopters is pretty unfortunate. I mean that helicopter, you know, primarily moves food around the country. So and it did get nobody got hurt. It did get hit a few times. But you know, if that aircraft had a service that's really going to hurt the humanitarian effort there, you know, and that could flow over into, you know. I don't know what the response is going to be. If the Haitian Government's going to close down, you know, flights in the country, or you know it may have some some blowback on us as well, but
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:37.360 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, generally we aren't messed with. I think everybody, including the gangs, know that. You know we're there to help. You know. Their depend. Their survival depends on the population tolerating them. There's not that many of them, and the population has shown in the past. They can definitely take gangs out quite violently if they decide they want to
00:29:37.400 --> 00:29:42.660 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: so generally us and the the UN's food program helicopter both.
00:29:43.056 --> 00:29:53.919 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: You know, been viewed very positively, but it only takes, you know, one drunk teenager with a rifle to to have a moment and and shoot at something, and I mean that I doubt this was an orchestrated hit. It was somebody that, just
00:29:54.350 --> 00:29:59.370 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, it's kind of generally firing in the air, and and did manage to hit it. So it's it's quite unfortunate.
00:29:59.370 --> 00:30:19.259 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, yeah, it's, you know. And and that just goes to show talk about humanitarian efforts. The fact that the folks on your team, the fact that the folks that are are on the helicopter that are doing the work that are on the front lines are are heroes. You're out there putting yourself at risk for somebody else, you know. I mean.
00:30:19.260 --> 00:30:37.010 Tommy DiMisa: that's unbelievable. That's an unbelievable situation. So thank you for that. And thank you. Thank the team for that, certainly, and I'm happy to be able to highlight this and and show other people that this organization is out there doing this great work. That's what this was for me, David Ellis, this show. It was like an opportunity for me to say, Hey!
00:30:37.010 --> 00:30:58.060 Tommy DiMisa: I got my eyes on something incredibly important, and now I get to share it. So when we come back I want to talk more about like day to day operation stuff like, you know. Are you often in Haiti. Are you more here in the States? That sort of thing? Who's in Haiti what their jobs are? Day in and day out, you know there was a gentleman there.
00:30:58.110 --> 00:31:09.859 Tommy DiMisa: There was a gentleman on the on the panel when we were out at the event on Long Island, who was telling stories. I couldn't tell you his name, but I don't know if he was one of the chief medical folks on on the team, but he.
00:31:09.860 --> 00:31:11.060 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: For jacket. And probably yeah.
00:31:11.060 --> 00:31:14.100 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, yeah, he was telling some stories. Jacobin, you said.
00:31:14.350 --> 00:31:15.620 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Dr. Jacketon. Yeah.
00:31:15.640 --> 00:31:26.790 Tommy DiMisa: And he was telling some stories just about the experience, and and you could see in his eyes how the emotion, because what what folks in your position are seeing on a
00:31:27.490 --> 00:31:35.860 Tommy DiMisa: on a daily basis is just really unbelievable. So if we can talk about some of the experience and what the team's doing so people get a feel for it, because at the end of the day
00:31:36.360 --> 00:31:58.759 Tommy DiMisa: what I'm always talking about is, how can we help? How can we make connections? How can we get, you know? Certainly a big part of of all my nonprofit friends. What we need. We need revenue. We need dollars. We need money to run the programs. So I always find if we tell these folks what the programs are, then we can talk to them about things we we need. So when we come back, let's talk a little bit about what that all looks like every day. This is philanthropy and focus. We're right back.
00:34:02.930 --> 00:34:05.519 Tommy DiMisa: Join me in the attic. All right. So the show is philanthropy and focus.
00:34:06.660 --> 00:34:20.989 Tommy DiMisa: Guest is David Ellis, executive director of Haiti Air Ambulance, and I am still sharing my page by sharing the website. So if you're watching the video somewhere, and you found this, I wanted David just to show this, some of the focus areas.
00:34:20.989 --> 00:34:42.009 Tommy DiMisa: maternal and perinatal care, patient and doctor transport, emergency response, healthcare training and employment. So you know, those are obviously the tenants of the organization. So maybe we could talk about weave those 4 focus areas into some of the stories about what your team is doing on the ground and in the air.
00:34:42.260 --> 00:34:44.710 Tommy DiMisa: as it relates to the organization. Each day.
00:34:46.030 --> 00:34:56.469 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, I mean, our our team really is composed of of 2 different groups. We've got a a group of us. From the us that that cycle through Haiti. There's 4 of us
00:34:56.910 --> 00:35:14.850 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, typically spend about half our time in country and then and then rotate back. And then we've got our team on the ground. There, that's our our Haitian doctors, our Emts, our dispatchers. Some of the the office staff. That are there 24, 7 you mentioned Dr. Jackton earlier.
00:35:14.890 --> 00:35:33.940 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, and he's he's like, you know, a number of our other staff that have chosen to stay in that environment. You know, that have the ability, I mean in his case is a very talented position. He's done internships in France. He's, you know, extremely well educated, certainly could get a job somewhere else in the world in a much calmer place.
00:35:34.560 --> 00:35:40.070 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and he's not the only one I'm I'm using him as an example. But certainly a lot of our other staff are in the same boat that they.
00:35:40.550 --> 00:35:54.990 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, they see what we're doing and how we're trying to help. They want to stay and help make their their country better, and and actively choose to be there. So you know, you say? Oh, you know we're heroes. We we go work in Haiti. Well, yeah. But I mean all, all of our Us. Staff, you know we leave.
00:35:54.990 --> 00:36:10.580 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: You know, we're we're gone half the time, you know, and and my my Haitian staff. They're just really amazing in that. They do have the opportunity to to leave and go somewhere else. But you know, actively choose to stay, you know, in that environment with, you know, the day to day threats that are that are around
00:36:10.872 --> 00:36:18.227 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: and really trying to make their home country better. So you want to talk about the actual heroes, those those guys are it? I mean, absolutely. Yeah.
00:36:18.670 --> 00:36:27.390 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: as far as our our different, you know. Obviously, you see, Haiti Air ambulance, you think? Oh, well, it's it's an ambulance. Well, I mean we were. And that was originally what we're we're conceived to do. But it's.
00:36:27.400 --> 00:36:35.759 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, a much, a much broader piece than that. So yes, we do fly patients in the in the helicopter, you know, it's kind of our our foundational mission.
00:36:35.780 --> 00:36:57.400 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: But there's a lot of pieces that go along with that. You know, we've got our Emts who run really amazing education and training program. We run thousands of people through Cpr. And 1st Aid stop to bleed classes every year. They're even teaching the pharmacy students. The medical schools all come to us for that basic 1st aid training.
00:36:57.710 --> 00:37:12.869 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: And they do a fantastic job with that. So you know, again, we've got a we're fortunate. We've got a great resource in in, you know the the operations in our building and the helicopter and that kind of thing. We try and find every way that we can to to maximize the benefit that we're doing while we're there in Haiti.
00:37:12.930 --> 00:37:29.799 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Certainly with our staff, you know. Something we try to do is is, you know, our dispatchers get, you know, flight dispatch certified. You know our Emts get certified. And and really, what we want to do for people is, even if they leave, you know they've got that skill set that they can. It's going to benefit them for the rest of their life
00:37:30.040 --> 00:37:38.579 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: as well, and we've seen that with some of our staff that have been able to come to the us and been able to use that skill set that that they've learned with us to to really have productive lives here in the Us.
00:37:40.130 --> 00:37:56.590 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: the, you know emergency response. You know, one thing that's really kind of jumped out, especially with the earthquake a couple years ago. You know it does. We saw this in North Carolina and Florida recently, you know, female respond. But it's going to be 3, 4, 5 days later, you know, it takes a long time to get that huge machine working.
00:37:56.660 --> 00:38:04.790 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: And with, you know whether it's a small incident like a you know, a field truck fire with a lot of casualties or a really big incident like the earthquake
00:38:04.810 --> 00:38:34.540 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: a few years ago. We're right there. We immediately respond. We're 24, 7, 3, 65 organization in Haiti. We don't have any spin up time, as far as is needing to, you know. Get everybody together and fly into the country. So you know we get we're able to get right out there on the front line immediately. And then, because we're familiar with how things work in the country, you know where where everything is, you know, and and have all those connections. We're able to help other organizations as they start to respond to help make their response more efficient.
00:38:34.540 --> 00:38:34.845 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.
00:38:35.250 --> 00:39:03.850 Tommy DiMisa: yeah, that's I love the piece about the training that you're talking about. You mentioned Cpr training and not just the training for your individual team and that professional development. So you know whether they're with you for the next 30 years, or they move on to something else. They're empowered to do that. But it's that in in country training that you're doing for you said, stop the bleed. You said the Cpr, right? That's that's super important, because it's super important generally. And then you put it in the scenario where it's tough to get to medical care.
00:39:03.850 --> 00:39:09.660 Tommy DiMisa: You know, you're gonna have to. Folks gonna have to do a lot on their own initially, right to to take care of things.
00:39:09.911 --> 00:39:33.830 Tommy DiMisa: I want to speak about can give me some examples of some stories if you could, David, I mean, like, if we're going to make people cry, let's do it, Bro, I mean, but we don't. We don't necessarily have to. We can do. But it could be just great stories of of things like lives that have changed. And you know, obviously, there's there's some tragedies that you guys are unable to to help somebody, whether it be the timing and things like that. So can can we speak to some of those stories.
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:47.129 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, this just kind of on that. One of the the differences is, you know, with this, you know. Say, you've got the same service United States. You know, we were supposed to be off the ground, and you know, 7 or 8 min, and it's just really fast
00:39:47.310 --> 00:40:02.230 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: response. But like I mentioned the earlier segment, you know, in Haiti we have to have an accepting hospital accepting doctor. Make sure there's a bed available. So there! There are a lot of times that we'll have actually the majority of the time that we've got a whole list of people that are waiting for a service.
00:40:02.602 --> 00:40:12.849 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: And you know we're yes, we try to get to the sickest first.st But sometimes those critical beds just aren't available, so somebody is less sick is able to get flown because we can find a space for them.
00:40:13.243 --> 00:40:24.219 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know. And then we we're only able. We're only legally allowed to operate during daylight. So we go home at night. We come back the next day and our our communications. Folks will start making phone calls and see you know who died overnight.
00:40:24.500 --> 00:40:36.209 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: who who take off the list because they're dead. You know, who got to go was able to go by ground, you know. And then what new patients do we have? And then we readjust the list and and start over again every day. So you know, there's
00:40:36.460 --> 00:41:06.099 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: there's really not a bottom to the amount of need. You know I was. I was talking with with David Culner yesterday. Who who you met? And you know, he said. Well, you know how many helicopters, you know, if we just we just had the the right deal, how many helicopters I'm like, I can't really answer that, because we can find work for however many we we've got, I mean, we can't possibly fund the number that we would need to really get everything done, you know. And and so, you know, really, it's it's just a case of we have to do the most with the resources we have trying to find the best way to
00:41:06.370 --> 00:41:12.059 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: to, you know. Apply those resources in the in the largest fashion possible for everybody.
00:41:12.560 --> 00:41:22.909 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, I I mean, that seems to be like one of the obvious questions I would ask the question Dave asked yesterday, because I would be like, All right. Well, you know, there's it's not an infinite amount of need, right? It might seem like that, but it's not.
00:41:22.910 --> 00:41:23.730 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Feels like it.
00:41:23.730 --> 00:41:32.980 Tommy DiMisa: It feels that way right. But there is again, you know there is some number that it, however many it would be. How
00:41:33.120 --> 00:41:37.880 Tommy DiMisa: what does it cost? I? If I read this correctly on the website, I think it says it cost
00:41:38.515 --> 00:41:46.790 Tommy DiMisa: each month. The organization aims to fund one crucial Flight Mission, which requires $4,500, is
00:41:47.110 --> 00:41:49.409 Tommy DiMisa: crucial flight. Mission. What does that refer to?
00:41:49.880 --> 00:42:08.880 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: So that's just that particular piece is just a fundraising effort, you know. Obviously, we do a lot more than one flight per month. But you know, if you, if you look at it across the course of a year, that's on average about what it would cost to fund the helicopter. All the medical supplies, the skilled staff on board the dispatchers. Mechanics. That's that's about what it costs per per trip per trip.
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:17.720 Tommy DiMisa: So every per every time a patient gets a ride somewhere and is brought to to healthcare. It costs $4,500.
00:42:17.930 --> 00:42:18.860 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: On on average. Yeah.
00:42:18.860 --> 00:42:19.470 Tommy DiMisa: What happened.
00:42:19.620 --> 00:42:22.380 Tommy DiMisa: Okay, what would it cost for a new helicopter?
00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:28.280 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: They run about 2 and a half. That's very broad, depending on depending on what you're getting.
00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:30.559 Tommy DiMisa: That's not exactly fair. That wasn't a fair question.
00:42:30.560 --> 00:42:34.650 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, typically, with what you know, the machines that we would use about 2.5 million dollars all in. So.
00:42:34.650 --> 00:42:38.760 Tommy DiMisa: 2 and a half 1 million dollars, and then carrying costs and staff and everything like that, right.
00:42:38.760 --> 00:42:39.530 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Heck, yeah.
00:42:39.530 --> 00:42:45.049 Tommy DiMisa: About no lack of need, no lack of of you could be busy with 10
00:42:45.430 --> 00:42:46.390 Tommy DiMisa: vehicles.
00:42:46.390 --> 00:42:48.000 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: We could find we could find work. Yeah.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:48.345 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah.
00:42:50.300 --> 00:42:54.519 Tommy DiMisa: So from a growth perspective, you know, I'm 1 of these, like.
00:42:55.640 --> 00:43:00.620 Tommy DiMisa: I don't know. Maybe it's counterintuitive man. I mean, I live in a in a capitalist society.
00:43:00.760 --> 00:43:03.109 Tommy DiMisa: And I but I also
00:43:03.390 --> 00:43:09.279 Tommy DiMisa: have trouble believing that there's not enough for us to solve all these problems. I think it's really for me.
00:43:09.649 --> 00:43:29.779 Tommy DiMisa: And then again, I'm not educated enough and have the answers to these things. I just play around with ideas, but I think it's a distribution problem in my mind. It's not a it's an access and distribution situation versus what's there. You know, there's abundance. I just don't think we allocate it the right way. I don't know if you want to weigh in on that, because I think it's probably.
00:43:29.780 --> 00:43:31.010 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: I'd agree.
00:43:31.010 --> 00:43:37.760 Tommy DiMisa: Get all the helicopters. You need. Sorry to interrupt you, but just to get all the helicopters you need, and to feed all the people that need to be fed. I just
00:43:38.280 --> 00:43:48.519 Tommy DiMisa: do. Do folks really need that many cars? Do folks really need that big house like for real like is that I don't believe that's a good setup. But what do you have to say about that?
00:43:48.880 --> 00:44:00.374 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: No, I I agree. There's you know it is is aggravating from our our standpoint, you know, is where you know, for purely philanthropy based. You know we don't. We don't charge patients, or you know, there's no fee or anything for for service.
00:44:00.999 --> 00:44:11.509 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: But you know, you see, the stuff that Us. Government spends money on. You see the stuff that these different big organizations spend money on. You think that's neat, that's really great that you could support that bakery. But
00:44:11.960 --> 00:44:26.359 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know we're trying to. We're trying to literally save people, you know. Keep kids from starving. Send vaccines out, you know. Fly really sick people, and you know, sometimes it just feels like, you know, why. Why is this a struggle to to get funding? It seems like it should be the easy button. I realize everybody's got their own.
00:44:26.390 --> 00:44:41.290 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, their their own focus. And that's that's understandable. But I get what you're saying. Yeah, I think there's there's there's a lot out there. It's really just an allocation. And and really, just, you know, governments and organizations having a determination on how much, how much change they want to influence.
00:44:41.290 --> 00:45:03.520 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, I think it's I. Yes, to everything you said. And I think it's bigger than a government situation. I think it is literally a mindset and a focus situation. We incentivize, in my opinion, much of the wrong behavior, right? And we disincentivize the really good stuff that people are doing. I operate in the nonprofit sector. I hang out with people who lead organizations like you're doing.
00:45:03.520 --> 00:45:28.110 Tommy DiMisa: and they tell me all the time. Now it might be different in your organization, because these are individuals have different certifications in your world. But oftentimes in this sector the frontline workers and the nonprofit are not making enough money. I just had this conversation last week on the program where there are individuals who work in the service sector with nonprofit organizations, direct care workers, and they have to get a second and sometimes a 3rd job to make any
00:45:28.110 --> 00:45:37.520 Tommy DiMisa: meet, because the job that they have for the nonprofit is not enough. That's ridiculous, folks. That's that doesn't make any sense that whereas we incentivize people
00:45:37.760 --> 00:45:55.710 Tommy DiMisa: to work in the financial services industry who make all this money and my opinion. Now, now, I'm going to get in trouble. But my opinion is, are you really doing anything to change the world? Is that really where we're going to put the money. I don't know, man, I don't know if I'll be here long enough to understand how it all works, David Ellis, but I think in terms of
00:45:55.920 --> 00:46:15.289 Tommy DiMisa: if we change the lens through which we see the world, and we realize that we're all here to do the right thing for each other to be compassionate, to be loving. And I'm not going to say I don't look at like it's 1 planet. It's 1 people right. But I feel like. It's you're you're doing this work in this important place.
00:46:15.320 --> 00:46:42.849 Tommy DiMisa: and they're not getting the services. But here, where I operate from, why, I was born in the States. Man, I live on Long Island man, what like that's we don't see this level of need, but we see a different level of need. So I don't know. I'm not going to figure it out. If you want to talk to me about this gang and you want to help me understand this. Send me an email, Tommy D. At philanthropy and focus.com. David Ellis, we're going to go back. We'll be back, for we'll take one last quick break. We'll come back and we'll do our final segment, which is really like, how can we help?
00:46:43.300 --> 00:47:10.790 Tommy DiMisa: Who are you looking for relationships with? Are there folks in the States. Are there folks in in Haiti that you want to connect with? And you know whether they be specific individuals, or you might say, you know, hey? Last week I had on the show my friend Lisa Birch, and she said, You know, Tommy, we're really looking for a corporate partner to to sponsor our garden that we're going to be doing at epic family services. And I said, Oh, that's really a cool thing. That's a specific ask. So any specific asks you have. Let's get into that. How's that sound for you, David?
00:47:11.340 --> 00:47:12.139 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Works good for me.
00:47:12.140 --> 00:47:15.841 Tommy DiMisa: Alright good cause. You stuck with me alright. We'll be right back.
00:49:16.680 --> 00:49:17.849 Tommy DiMisa: No! I love that song.
00:49:18.830 --> 00:49:20.099 Tommy DiMisa: The lyrics to that song.
00:49:21.090 --> 00:49:34.000 Tommy DiMisa: Brendan is the singer of that song. Shout out to Brendan, levy Queens, Chamber of Commerce and the band damaged goods. David Ellis, my friend's band. They used to be called the goods back in the nineties, and now they're called damaged goods because they're old men. At this point in.
00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:34.920 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: But I would.
00:49:34.920 --> 00:50:00.980 Tommy DiMisa: Say when I go to visit with them and see them, they're anything but damaged. But one of my kids was saying to me, hey? I love your song, Dad, but I think we need a new song. So I don't know. I was thinking about kind of a Reggae type version of that song, so we'll see. I'd love to know if anybody wants to play around and make a new song. Let me know. Reach out. You know you learn things about people, David, that you know I was in? I was running a meeting for the nonprofit resource Hub, which is an organization. We found that I found it with our friend David Goldstein.
00:50:00.980 --> 00:50:06.699 Tommy DiMisa: from Sir Tillman Ballen, and some other partners, and I was running a networking meeting with the group on Monday of this week.
00:50:06.850 --> 00:50:33.830 Tommy DiMisa: and what I kept bringing up was, tell us something. We're all business professionals. We want to help each other grow our businesses. But tell us something like we don't know about each other. You find out sometimes people are singers, people play guitar, right? People. People are in a you know, a what's that thing, Frisbee? The disk, like ultimate Frisbee Leagues like, you know. So I didn't know I was going to ask you this. But is there anything like. So we can connect further with David Ellis. Is there anything cool that we should know about you like that? You're into.
00:50:35.892 --> 00:50:57.149 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: You know, when I'm in Haiti I live in a, you know, very compressed, very busy, sometimes very loud city. So I do the opposite. Here in in. I live in North Georgia, you know, barely any neighbors visible with I have no idea how many chickens and rabbits, and there are 3 goats. I know how many of those there are, but yeah, a little little Mini farm out here in the woods. So.
00:50:57.150 --> 00:51:02.908 Tommy DiMisa: I love that I you know I forgot that. Actually, that happened when we were texting the other day that you sent me that picture.
00:51:03.500 --> 00:51:05.349 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: That's not the backyard right.
00:51:05.350 --> 00:51:10.610 Tommy DiMisa: Yes, yeah, cause I have. My my friend is in my friend and and
00:51:10.690 --> 00:51:34.819 Tommy DiMisa: partner in the professionals and animal lovers show she's in Greenville, South Carolina. So I mentioned that I saw. You know your Linkedin, said Greenville, so I was like, oh, what's the story? And you and I said, we do the show professionals and animal lovers. I forgot you sent me. It was like a video with the goats and stuff like that. So I get that man I looking like I live this fast paced thing, too, so I need to mellow out like in, and and just be
00:51:34.820 --> 00:51:55.749 Tommy DiMisa: just relax and and chill out, and things like that. So thanks for sharing that for sure. So let's get into like, what? What is the future of Haiti Air ambulance. As you said. You know, tongue in cheek. We're not going to run out of prospective clients, that's for sure. And people you need to serve. We got that? What do you need? How can we help? Are there certain relationships that you benefit from knowing
00:51:56.460 --> 00:51:57.110 Tommy DiMisa: dude.
00:51:57.110 --> 00:52:06.022 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, I mean, we're like I mentioned earlier. You know, we're really starting to kind of change the the our business focus a little bit rather than just being
00:52:06.563 --> 00:52:33.320 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, helicopter air ambulance, which is great. You know, we've gotten up, you know, in the last year to about 500 patients a year that we're we're really helping out. And that's fantastic. But you know, again, we're in a country that has severe travel problems, you know not just the roads being bad. But then a lot of these being blocked, you know, there being a lot of of combat essentially on the on some of the roads. So we've got this great resource. So really, our thought processes right now, how can we help 200,000 people? How can we help 100,000 people.
00:52:33.330 --> 00:52:38.979 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, and that's really where we've we've focused. We're shopping now for a cargo type helicopter
00:52:39.580 --> 00:52:58.060 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, if anybody's just got one sitting in the backyard hit me up. That'd be great. You know, just looking at ways that we can. We can take our our skill set. You know we know how to to aviate in Haiti. We've been maintaining helicopters and and flying safely there for 10 years now. We've got, you know almost 200 landing zones all over the country
00:52:58.060 --> 00:53:25.269 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: that are preset up. So we've we've got that wrapped up. So how can we take that skill set and that knowledge base that we already have and just make it a lot bigger. You know, it's not, as you know, we're landing on top of some mountain and unloading a bunch of boxes out of a helicopter, you know. That's not not as sexy, so to speak, as picking up a really sick patient. But we can take one load of, you know, 1,200 pounds of food or or 10,000 vaccines for newborns out. We're helping a whole lot of people.
00:53:25.310 --> 00:53:41.838 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: So that's really, you know, kind of our our focus right now is is, yes, the the ambulance piece is is foundational for us. That's not not going away. But you know we're we're trying to find ways to make our resource even more valuable and and help a lot more people.
00:53:42.300 --> 00:54:03.799 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, as as that, you know, we we are very active. Thank you for pulling up the website earlier. You know, we're active and keeping that up to date. Very active on social media. I mean, if if anybody wants to know kind of what the the next thing in the pipeline is for us. I think we we communicate that pretty well. But certainly, you know, have have people look on the website. You know, there's there's a lot of different aspects and different things we do, whether it be training or
00:54:04.111 --> 00:54:14.069 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, helping out with with some midwives groups, or, you know, disaster response, that kind of thing. There's different areas that people are interested in and are interested in supporting those.
00:54:14.140 --> 00:54:16.010 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: That's that's fantastic.
00:54:16.010 --> 00:54:17.810 Tommy DiMisa: How much 1st of all.
00:54:18.920 --> 00:54:36.380 Tommy DiMisa: I never know why I end up in these rooms that I end up in, or I never know. I know why I end up in these rooms, but I never know what the outcome could be. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Association of Supply Chain management here on Long Island, and one of the recipients of their honor. That night one of the Honorees
00:54:36.410 --> 00:54:51.790 Tommy DiMisa: works in supply chain at Pfizer, and I met this person that night. I don't have a relationship with this person, but I we connected on Linkedin things like that. I don't know if that's supposed to be. Why I was there that night, because I don't know.
00:54:51.790 --> 00:54:52.740 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Too? Who knows?
00:54:52.740 --> 00:55:15.140 Tommy DiMisa: And man, I don't know why these things happen. So we're gonna explore that you and I, because, you know, I wasn't even gonna say it was Pfizer, I was going to say a pharmaceutical company, but I already let the cat out of the bag. So. But but that's and as far as like you and I both smiled when you said, if you have a cargo helicopter like, you know, sitting in your backyard somewhere, this world is kind of wild man like somebody's got a
00:55:15.530 --> 00:55:32.299 Tommy DiMisa: nobody's got a helicopter, you know. Years and years ago there was a man who got in trouble. He was living in a project apartment in the Bronx in New York City, and he had a tiger, a wild tiger in there. So my point is, somebody has a helicopter. I don't know how those.
00:55:32.300 --> 00:55:33.899 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: The tiger. The helicopter is okay.
00:55:33.900 --> 00:55:43.537 Tommy DiMisa: You don't want the tiger. I'm gonna we'll trade you a tiger for a helicopter. The thing about it is people have these resources. And you know, while
00:55:44.260 --> 00:55:59.329 Tommy DiMisa: while I have relationships and connections, right? It's all about who are we connected to? So there might be somebody that has these things I do. You have again. Wrong words. But like a wish list, I mean the cargo helicopter. Anything else that's like
00:55:59.510 --> 00:56:05.910 Tommy DiMisa: wish list for even relationships. Like I mentioned Pfizer, for example, I mean, that's a, you know, an international
00:56:05.920 --> 00:56:13.690 Tommy DiMisa: 1 billion dollar company, right? That is adjacent to the work you're doing as it relates to pharmaceutical drugs and things like that.
00:56:14.080 --> 00:56:19.269 Tommy DiMisa: Do you see companies like that as good connections and relationships for Haiti air ambulance going forward.
00:56:19.990 --> 00:56:47.829 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, I think in in a lot of cases, you know, that's really all the you know as we try. And do, do you know fundraising development in the Us. It really is just about connections and and relationships, you know, you might have, you know, maybe we connect with this person from Pfizer. They don't really have anything for us. But they say, Hey, wait a minute. I know this other person. We move over there and find something. Yeah, it's just kind of crazy how that how that really works. But you know, the the hardest thing is for us to to fund is actually just day to day operations.
00:56:47.930 --> 00:56:59.039 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Nobody. Nobody really is interested in that. I mean, they'll we've had phenomenal help of people helping us with. You know, some of our maternity programs and in different aspects, training and that kind of thing. But as far as just
00:56:59.360 --> 00:57:07.760 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: you know, we gotta have have stuff just to run every day and nobody. Nobody really is interested in that. So anybody that's interested in just core operations. Yeah.
00:57:08.040 --> 00:57:22.790 Tommy DiMisa: Unfortunately, unfortunately, that seems to always be the plight of our industry nonprofit. Nobody wants to fund operations right? I I'll fund that really cool program. You're doing right. But I need people to do that program right? So I got people and pay for health insurance. So it'd be cool if you could
00:57:22.790 --> 00:57:47.219 Tommy DiMisa: do that. But listen, there's a lot of resources I want to explore with you. We're running out of time. We're probably out of time. At this point. I'm gonna have to close it here, David Ellis, I appreciate you. I appreciate the work you're doing. Shout out to your team, shout out to the leadership of the organization, shout out to people on the ground and and listen! Be compassionate, everybody, be loving! Look out for your neighbor, and your neighbor is not just the person who you can pass a bag of sugar to next door. This is a global
00:57:47.420 --> 00:57:51.370 Tommy DiMisa: society. Please love everybody, David. Thanks for being here make it a great day.
00:57:52.020 --> 00:57:53.009 David Ellis Haiti Air Ambulance: Yeah, thanks. Tommy.
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