At four days old, Indianna Tatana had her first of three open-heart bypass surgeries after being born with congenital heart disease.
This month, along with many other New Zealand children, Indianna, who now lives in Whanganui, celebrates the Starship National Air Ambulance and the service they provided her at the time of her surgery.
The service is making its annual appeal to raise $1.5 million to fund and keep the air ambulance in service.
Indianna's mother, Carmen, said luckily the air ambulance was able to provide them with a transfer back to Palmerston North Hospital after Indianna's first surgery.
"We had to spend another week [in Palmerston North Hospital] so we could be closer to home but if we had not had the air ambulance we would have had to stay in Starship longer because she was not able to fly in a commercial flight, so it made a massive difference."