Job Satisfaction

1 A.M., and it's DARK!
We landed on the centerline of the hilly, curvy highway
in a very tight LZ,
the red/blue lights of 15 or or so emergency vehicles flashing around us..........
Police Cars,
Fire Engines,
Rescue Trucks,
Ambulances.


A BRAND NEW, Red, Pontiac Trans Am was bent nearly in half around a surprisingly small tree.
The car had departed the road at a high rate of speed at a sheer drop-off and had flown about 20 feet where it struck and wrapped itself around the tree........suspended 5 feet in the air, making it exceedingly difficult for first responders to extricate the driver!

He was bleeding pretty badly.
The car was full of Teens.......amazingly, three others, all belted in, were relatively unhurt and had somehow gotten out of the car and jumped to the ground to call for help for the trapped driver.

The extrication took so long, I finally shut the aircraft down to wait.
By the time they brought the 17 year old patient up the hill to the aircraft, my nurse was worried we didn't have enough fluids to replace his lost blood. She made the comment, "His heart needs something to pump........if we had a Coca Cola, I'd be tempted to put it in his IV!"

He made it alive to the Trauma Center. I didn't follow up on him.

About a year later I was giving R22 rides at a fly-in at a local airport when a classy looking, older couple walked up to the aircraft.........

We hear you also work for "**** ********?"
"Yes, I do, why?"
"Our son was involved in an accident a little over a year ago on Highway ###, do you know anything about it?"

"Was he driving a new Trans Am?"
"Yes."
"I was the pilot that flew him out."

And this attractive couple began to cry.

Their son was alive and in rehab. He was learning to walk and talk again, after being head injured and busted up badly.
He had to use crutches, but was at home after a long hospital stay.

The older gentleman was a pilot and owned a classic old Stearman Biplane.
He gave me his business card, which had a picture of the airplane on it.
He wrote "Thank You" on the back of the card and signed his name.

"If you ever make it here to the airport in the future, call me, and I'll take you for the best Stearman ride you have ever had!"

I never took him up on the ride.
I frequently wish I had.

But their tears said more than enough.