Shining a New Light on Critical Care: Clarence Blanchard’s LifeFlight Story
Lee Malloy and Clarence Blanchard have been partners for more than a decade. They share a sense of adventure and have visited all 50 states. Their love for traveling led them to plan a three-month road trip to Newfoundland, Canada. They left their home in Litchfield, Maine, in August 2024, but they never made it past Calais.
Instead of taking a ferry across the border together, Clarence was transported in LifeFlight of Maine’s airplane to Bangor, while Lee drove the two hours in the couple’s camper van to meet him at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC). A fun getaway quickly turned into an almost two-week hospital stay.
Lee remembers that they were in their camper van in Calais when Clarence started to feel sick. Thinking it was a bout of food poisoning, they chose to stay there for the night and decided that they could go to the hospital the next morning if they needed to, before continuing their journey. However, overnight, his condition worsened.
“Just approaching his body, he was so hot that I knew that he had a temperature,” Lee recalled. She said Clarence became delirious and was unable to communicate with her, so she jumped into the driver’s seat of the camper van and drove directly to Calais Community Hospital.
Early the next morning, doctors told Lee that Clarence was experiencing sepsis, which occurs when a person’s body doesn’t properly fight off an infection. In severe cases, sepsis can be life-threatening.
Clarence’s heart rate was fluctuating drastically; at times it reached 200 beats per minute. “They were supposed to transfer us to Bangor. But the plans kept falling through. We kept waiting to go,” said Lee. The local ambulance service was not equipped to transport Clarence until his heart rate stabilized. In his current condition, Clarence needed a higher level of care during transport than was available in Calais.
A LifeFlight of Maine crew equipped to safely transport Clarence was dispatched from Bangor. The crew flew to an airfield in Princeton. Flight nurse Veronica Marzonie and flight paramedic Craig Barrett then got in an ambulance and were driven from there to the hospital.
Lee remembers seeing the LifeFlight crew come into the hospital and recalls Veronica discussing Clarence’s worsening condition with the care team. During an examination, Craig asked Clarence if he knew who Lee was. “His answer was ‘no,’” said Lee. “And that’s a good joke if Clarence is pulling a joke, but he wasn’t pulling a joke. He didn’t know who I was.”
Lee Malloy and Clarence Blanchard on one of their many trips together.
Lee remembers how Craig and Veronica explained to her what was happening and where they were taking her partner. They offered to call Lee with an update when the plane landed in Bangor, making sure she knew her partner was in the best possible hands.
“They took the time to explain to me how they would sit on either side of Clarence during the flight for constant monitoring,” Lee said. “It put a whole new light on critical care and what it really means.” When the plane landed in Bangor, Veronica called Lee with an update.
Throughout Clarence’s twelve-day hospital stay, Lee remained by his side. As he prepared to go home, Veronica, who was on shift again, stopped by Clarence’s room to check in.
Lee said she wasn’t familiar with LifeFlight before Clarence was transported. But since then, Lee said, she has a deep appreciation for the organization and the crew members in green flight suits who show up when families need them most.
