Student surprised with Angel MedFlight

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (WALA) - One Gulf Breeze High School senior received quite a surprise when about 100 students surprised her with a trip to Miami; complete with air, hotel, and car. 

But, this trip is not a vacation. It's a medical transport for 17-year-old Taylor Collins, who has epilepsy and suffers seizures.

Collins and her mother were flown to Miami aboard an Angel MedFlight jet. Angel MedFlight is a Scottsdale, Arizona, based air ambulance company.

The owner donated a plane, flight crew, and other expenses to Collins family at the request of some of Collins' high school colleagues.

Collins went to her schools' student body and explained to them that she needed to go to Miami for an operation, but her family could not afford it.

So the group did some brainstorming and found Air MedFlight online, so they called them.

"We had to come up with this very quickly, because we only had three weeks to put this together because she wanted to go during Spring Break and not miss any school," said Student Government Rep Jordan Kirchgessner, a junior at Gulf Breeze High School.

An air ambulance flight transfer is not cheap; one-way trips can cost as much as $40,000.

"The owner of [Angel MedFlight] is very passionate about high school students and what they do for their community, what they do for their colleagues, so he went ahead and donated that generous gift," said Kelly K. LoCascio, Corporate Counsel with Air MedFlight.

School officials brought Collins into the drama club classroom, where she was greeted by cheers.

"I was very surprised; I was [thinking], ‘Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh," said Taylor Collins, “I didn’t know what was going on, but I saw my mother, father, and brothers and thought oh my gosh.”

This special gift will also be Collins first time flying, so two medics will ride with her in case she needs any treatment once airborne.

"It was a lot of work, but we really feel that it was worth it because we're helping a member of our community, a member of Gulf Breeze High School; people love her and she's very nice, and she came to us in need, so of course we wanted to help her," said Kirchgessner.