LifeFlight Eagle

LifeFlight Eagle presented the Sullivan County Ambulance District and Milan Fire Department with Life Saver Awards on Monday, May 20, in recognition of exceptional performance helping save a life under difficult circumstances last year.

On April 30, 2012, a 16-year-old boy in Milan was riding his 4-wheeler when he crashed into a deep concrete spillway. He was severely injured in the crash, but after regaining consciousness, somehow managed to climb partway out of the ditch before his friends found him and called for help.

Sullivan County Ambulance District Paramedic Matt Keuhn responded to the call and found every paramedic’s worst nightmare: the patient was his child.

LifeFlight Eagle presented the Sullivan County Ambulance District and Milan Fire Department with Life Saver 
Awards on Monday, May 20, in recognition of exceptional performance helping save a life under difficult 
circumstances last year. Pictured are Vivian Hall, left, Barbara Hostetter, Donald Murphy, Ryan Keuhn,
LifeFlightEagle CEO Roxanne Shanks, Matt Keuhn, LifeFlight Eagle base manager Rich Cunningham, Lonnie
Clark, LifeFlight Eagle flight nurse Angie Jedlicka, Charles Emberton, John Bushnell and Robert Armes.

Jackson Hill had his summer planned out. He was working out, getting ready for his senior football season at Lee’s Summit High School. The 17-year-old had a well-paying job with a moving company that helped him bulk up for his starting spot as an outside linebacker. He had just finished football camp and was looking forward to a little time off.

Instead, he spent the summer fighting for his life.

After running some errands on June 13, Jackson had some time to kill before heading to Holden for a friend’s going-away party. He decided to go visit his sister, Tabitha, in Warrensburg and headed that direction on Missouri Route 13.

Jackson topped a hill speeding on his motorcycle and found a car stopped in the middle of the road in front of him waiting to turn. He tried to swerve left to avoid the car, but clipped its left rear fender and veered directly into the path of an oncoming car, striking it at full speed.

“I remember laying there, and I was mainly worried about my bike and how bad it was hurt,” Jackson later recalled. “’Cause I didn’t realize near how bad everything was.”

“I was worried, you know that I probably had some road rash. I was worried about getting back up, that my dad was going to be mad and whatnot. But I was definitely thinking that I was going to get back up and be on my way.”

But Jackson had suffered massive trauma. His right leg was amputated below the knee. Every bone in both legs was severely broken. His left ankle and foot were shattered. He had a broken pelvis and a massive, deep laceration extending from his hip nearly to his groin.

Jackson lay crumpled and broken on the centerline of the highway.

Harrisonville firefighters work on securing Bailey Warner Harrisonville High School student on a backboard to prepare her for a flight from a docudrama scene in the parking lot of Harrisonville High School, May 15, 2010. Harrisonville police, fire and EMS enlisted the help of LifeFlight Eagle to help teach students the dangers of drinking and driving by staging a mock car crash. During the demonstration, the student was removed from the vehicle, as it would happen it real life, in an effort to save her life, while another student was tested and arrested for drunk driving. LifeFlight Eagle was called in to fly the student out.

It was a typical Wednesday evening Dec. 2, 2009, for mechanic Harold Denman. He was working on a truck when he started feeling a little queasy.

“There had been a bug going around, so I just thought I was getting a cold, didn’t think much of it,” said 56-year-old Denman.

But his supervisor saw something Denman didn’t see.

Denman was pulling a part from the back room when he told his

LifeFlight Eagle Paramedics, Damon Akers, left, and Robert Langston run the three legged race on crutches in the last leg of a relay race May 21, in Clinton, Mo. The relay was part of Golden Valley Memorial Hospital EMS Challenge for EMS Week. Surrounding EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement officials along with LifeFlight Eagle participated in the annual event. LifeFlight Eagle won the relay.