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Couple Relives Horrible Crash to Help Wisconsin First Responders

Amy Silverman made an emotional revelation Thursday to the two Gundersen MedLink Air rescuers who saved her life.

LA CROSSE, Wisconsin – Amy Silverman and her boyfriend, Rick Borden, re-lived a horrific motorcycle crash to help local first responders improve trauma care.

Amy Silverman made an emotional revelation Thursday to the two Gundersen MedLink Air rescuers who saved her life when they tended to her broken, mangled and bleeding body in a ditch nearly 13 months ago.

Silverman choked back tears as she confided her secret to Mike Ashbacher and Tony Hovey during a review of the crash on Oct. 9, 2016. She and her boyfriend, Rick Gordon, lost their left legs below their knees after a car slammed into the Harley-Davidson motorcycle they were riding. They were thrown, like two rag dolls, into a ditch.

“Something you guys don’t know,” Silverman said, her voice shaking, “I thank God every day for taking my leg and not my life. When it’s late at night, and I realized I haven’t thanked God, I do it then.”

Touched by the emotion, flight nurse Hovey said, “This is making a positive impact,” reflecting the fact that they all are moving forward with a resolve to turn what had been a gruesome tragedy into lessons for others.

The Northbrook, Ill., high school special education teacher and mother of two agreed with that assessment during the often-difficult-to-watch presentation that flight nurse Hovey and flight paramedic Ashbacher pulled together.

They developed the presentation for a symposium Friday at Gundersen to show first responders and other trauma care specialists that all elements of a hospital system must be in sync to save lives in otherwise horrific situations.

Read more about this story here.

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EMSFSN Staff
EMSFSN Staff

EMS Flight Safety Network is The People Who Keep Air Medical Safe.

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