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Your Healthy Family: Flight nurse works to save lives every day

Posted at 11:06 AM, Aug 10, 2018
and last updated 2023-02-22 14:08:14-05

Disclaimer: This is sponsored content. All opinions and views are of UCHealth and does not reflect the same of KOAA.

COLORADO SPRINGS – Many people contributed to UCHealth Memorial Central becoming a Level I trauma center.  Registered nurse Ami Bess is part of UCHealth’s LifeLinemedical flight team and is one of those people. Every day, her job puts her on the front line of some of the worst situations.

Ami says, “For me, coming to work every day is a gift.  I get a chance to make a really big difference for somebody. I get the chance to try and keep them from dying.”

Ami has come to grips with the reality that what’s required of her is her best effort every day. “It feels so amazing, there are no words to explain the joy you have that you can actually make that difference.”  Sometimes, though, the results are not what everyone is hoping for. “There are those days when you don’t have that ability, and you try as hard as you can but the outcome is not good.”

One of those impacted by Ami’s work is Eddie Kerr, who was impaled on a tree while riding a dirt bike in the high country.

For Ami, Eddie personifies what she and the entire trauma team at UCHealth Memorial strive for.  “When you put the Eddies of the world in the back of that helicopter, all that medical stuff goes through your mind, but for a minute or two in the back of your mind you’re thinking ‘this could be me, or my loved one, and I need to get them home to their family.’  We all work toward that goal really hard.”

The trauma care Eddie received from beginning to end truly exemplifies the dedication, training, and skill on many levels at UCHealth Memorial and its many healthcare partners in southern Colorado.

Ami says, “I worked my whole life to get here and you’ll find that most of us on this team have done the same.  We work a lot with our trauma surgeons, we work with our cardiologists, and neurologists here at the hospital and we get a lot of specialized (training) and attention so that when we are in those life-and-death situations we can do the absolute best for that person, and hopefully get them home in one piece to their family.”

UCHealth is a proud sponsor of Your Healthy Family