Between Heaven & Earth

An air-rescue nurse and a farmer. It's a match made in, well, Nebraska

Renae Bottom

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Flight nurse Renee Grams was halfway through a 24-hour shift last September when a call came into the regional hospital in central Nebraska where she works. The flight crew of the Air Care helicopter was placed on alert.

Ten miles south of the hospital, a man lay injured in a cornfield. Both of his legs had been amputated above the knee by the blades of a silage chopper, a powerful machine used to cut corn into cattle feed. His son had discovered him, then driven frantically to the nearest telephone. With 15 years of flight-nursing experience, Renee knew how grim the man's prospects were.

"When the local paramedic service arrived, they thought the man had no chance of survival," she recalls. "He was a trauma code blue; he had a one-tenth of one percent chance to live. Then he took a breath."

With that breath, the Emergency Medical Paramedic Service at the scene began the man's resuscitation and the Sikorsky helicopter on the hospital's roof was summoned into action. "They dispatched us to the scene," Renee continues. "We assessed the man's condition and loaded him into the helicopter. He needed blood more than anything else."

That life-giving blood, along with other IV fluids and medications, was administered during the seven-minute trip back to the hospital. During a miraculous four of those minutes—unspeakably precious ones in Renee's work—the flight crew revived the man's stopped heart. Then, as the helicopter landed, they lost his heartbeat again.

The man was rushed to the trauma room. After undergoing nearly 30 minutes of intensive life-saving procedures at the hands of EMS (Emergency Medical Services) and hospital personnel, he was taken to surgery. The flight crew assisted in the trauma room, then cleaned and restocked the helicopter. Another call could come at any moment.

Coming Back to Earth

While most of us hope we'll never encounter such a situation, Renee welcomes the challenge as part of her work. Her split-second decisions routinely carry life-and-death consequences. During her shifts Renee works throughout the hospital, starting IVs, assisting in crisis situations, even rocking babies.

But when the EMS helicopter is called into action, Renee and the other flight crew members have only a few minutes to assess patient information and prepare supplies for take-off. Then they're airborne in a six-by-eight-foot "emergency room" cruising at speeds up to 225 miles per hour. It's not a job for the weak-kneed, and it's certainly not the kind of work you can leave at the office.

For Renee, the 40-mile drive home is a time to transition from the high-adrenaline pace of her work to the more peaceful life she leads as a farm wife. Well, peaceful may not be the best word to describe their family business. While Renee is away covering a 48-hour weekend shift, her husband, Craig, is busy with round-the-clock responsibilities. He manages their 2,000-acre farm and functions as "sole parent on the premises" to their four children.

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Originally published in: Marriage Partnership, 1999, Summer

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