Baby's family: 'Celebrate her life'

Ambulance trips and hospital stays were all too frequent in Kirstin Blockinger's 14 months of life.

The brown-haired, blue-eyed baby suffered from seizures, and her parents, Brooke and Rob Blockinger, wanted to eventually get her to Mayo Clinic for treatment.

On Wednesday night, a seizure again struck the little girl in her family's home in Leland, a LaSalle County town that straddles busy railroad tracks.

At about 8:30 p.m. she was rushed to Valley West Community Hospital in Sandwich, which does not have a pediatric critical care unit, before being picked up by an Air Angels helicopter for a flight to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Kirstin, along with the pilot, nurse and paramedic on the flight, died when the helicopter crashed in an Aurora field just before midnight. The Air Angels crew members were identified as Del Waugh, 69, of Carmel, Ind.; William Mann, 31, of Chicago; and medic Ronald Battiato, 41, of Peotone.

The tragedy left Leland numb and the Blockinger family in a state of shock. In addition to their grief over Kirstin's death, the family was "terribly saddened," one member said, for the helicopter crew.

Thursday evening, the family piled into three cars and made the drive to the scene of the crash.

Rob Blockinger, a specialist with the Illinois National Guard, had rushed home Thursday from Kansas, where he was training for a deployment to Afghanistan. He has already served a tour in Iraq.

When the 11 family members arrived in Aurora, they held hands as police cars blocked the road for them to cross. They gathered in a circle and prayed.

Brooke Blockinger's dad, Steve Ogletree, read a brief statement to reporters, thanking the community for the "outpouring of support."

"We'd like to express our condolences to the Air Angels' crew and their families," he said. "I'd like to thank all the first responders, especially Leland and Somonauk.

"We love Kirstin and celebrate her life, however short. We ask for privacy to mourn our loss at this time."

Then they walked as a group into the field. Kirstin's mom laid pink roses at the crash site and hugged a teddy bear tightly. When the group emerged, some carried reeds plucked from the crash site.

Neither Rob Blockinger, who called his daughter "KB," nor his wife, who was home with Kirstin and 2-year-old son Collin at the time of the seizure, spoke to reporters.

In Leland, a farm town of about 1,100, friends and colleagues reeled.

"You couldn't ask for better people," said volunteer Fire Chief Don Hecathorn, who knows the family well. Both Rob Blockinger and his father, Glenn, are also volunteer firefighters in Leland.

"In a small town like this, everybody knows everybody," said fellow volunteer Ernie Petty. "And everybody is just devastated when something like this happens."

The Blockingers moved to Leland nearly two years ago, settling in a neat Cape Cod-style home along the tracks. An American flag, a U.S. Army flag, and red, white and blue bunting adorn the front porch.

Neighbors knew Kirstin had been sick. It was about nine months ago when the seizures began -- making ambulances a common sight.

"We saw the ambulances come about every other week," neighbor Michelle Fury said.