When it comes to Pilots for Patients, the free air transportation service for needy patients that started in Monroe some 19 years ago, Tracy Breithaupt is the go-to pilot in the Alexandria area.
Breithaupt, 57, is the CEO of TL Construction, an Alexandria company that offers commercial and industrial contracting, including road and highway building. But ever since he was a child he wanted to fly. Two years after he graduated from Louisiana Tech (1992) in construction engineering technology, he got his pilot’s license, and in 1994 this lanky fellow who prepped at LaSalle High in Olla, bought a Cessna 150, which he still flies.
In 2000, he moved to Alexandria after bouncing around from Ruston to Texas and Arkansas and joined the Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary for the U.S. Air Force. In 26 years in that capacity, he grew accustomed to search and rescue missions and lots of aerial photography after disastrous hurricanes. In the past year, he was named the CAP’s Louisiana Deputy Wing Commander.
A friend and fellow pilot, the late Jimmy McDonald of Glenmora, encouraged him to join Pilots for Patients in 2017. This is a service whose goal is to “eliminate the burden of travel” for patients who need diagnosis or treatments at medical facilities not available to them locally. The founder and CEO is Philip Thomas, a part-time pilot and businessman who is the president of Precision Paper & Board Inc. in Monroe.
While he was formerly involved with Angel Flight South Central, Thomas realized the immense, unmet need for flights specifically originating from Louisiana. In December 2007, Thomas had a recurring dream over two consecutive nights that inspired him to dedicate himself to flying patients to specialized medical facilities.
To be eligible to join PFP, Breithaupt explained, you need a license, your own plane and you’ve got to pay for the trip expenses out of your own pocket.
“My goal for the first year was to do one mission a month,” he said. “I ended up doing 25 in my first year.”
As of last week, Breithaupt has done 169 missions. Although he said all the missions have been special, he had to stop talking for a while to compose himself when talking about James Drouin, a 5-month-old boy from Bunkie.
James has cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects the lungs, pancreas and other organs.
Tracy made the trip in May with James, then 4 months old, and his parents, M’Lee and Tanner, to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
“That disease doesn’t discriminate whether you’re old or young,” Breithaupt said. “That’s a side of it (the travels) … I know it’s there, but I try to block it out because if you start thinking about it, it’s a terrible thing.”
True as that is, M’Lee said she and her husband have been blown away by the “caring, compassion and kindness” of everyone they have interacted with in the PFP program.
She said young James needs monthly visits to Texas Children’s Hospital, and they have had different pilots for some trips. “Giving their time, money and resources like they do has been a blessing for us,” she said.
It was a “complete shock” for M’Lee and her husband when they learned they were both carriers for cystic fibrosis, with neither of them nor their older siblings having had the disease themselves.
Anyone wanting to take advantage of Pilots for Patients needs to get a referral from their doctor and then coordinate their flights with Stacy Hutto, the lead mission flight coordinator in Monroe.
Breithaupt has had some patients who have flown up to a dozen times with him, often to Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The late John Texada of Alexandria was one, and another is Lynn Black of Alexandria.
“Lynn asked me what my favorite thing was to eat, and I told her I really like a good steak,” said Breithaupt, who has a wife, Julie, and 27-year-old stepdaughter, Helen. “A few days after she returns from a trip, she’ll send me some of the thickest steaks you’ll ever want to see.”
“I have travelled with Tracy through the Pilots for Patients program for eight years now,” said Lynn. “He is very professional, caring, and truly a good person. I can never thank him enough, but do know that he enjoys a good steak, so I treat him to these as a small gesture to make his heart smile. Tracy is a blessing to me.”
Told it was most generous of him to give his time and money for so many trips, Breithaupt said, “I’ve been blessed in my life; I’m just trying to pay back. The Lord’s blessed us. He’s given me the ability to fly. I find it rewarding. I’m trying to pay back.”