Last Christmas Alex Lambson visited the Jubilee of Trees with his family. They enjoyed the decorations, sat in the Life Flight helicopter that was on display, took pictures, and even helped with cleanup when the Jubilee was over.
“We never dreamed that a year later we’d need Life Flight,” says Alex’s mom, Kaleen Talley.
Last Christmas Alex Lambson visited the Jubilee of Trees with his family. They enjoyed the decora- tions, sat in the Life Flight helicopter that was on display, took pictures, and even helped with cleanup when the Jubilee was over.
“We never dreamed that a year later we’d need Life Flight,” says Alex’s mom, Kaleen Talley.
Parents, grandparents, and others are invited to celebrate the arrival of Intermountain’s Life Flight helicopter service as grand landings are scheduled next month en route to its permanent base at Dixie Regional Medical Center.
The celebrations begin January 5 at Garfield Memorial Hospital (Panguitch) and Valley View Medical Center (Cedar City) and continue to Kane County Hospital (Kanab) January 6, and Beaver Valley Hospital January 10. Everything culminates in St. George January 11-12, with a series of events at Dixie Regional Medical Center and the new St. George airport.
On October 5 of this year, Alex and his friend Dane Zdunich were waiting for a ride home from Snow Canyon High School. A storm had blown in that afternoon, and the boys were struck by lightning, setting off a chain of events that Dane’s mom Leslie Broderick describes as “horrific.”
At the same time, she acknowledges a multitude of heroes and blessings that got the boys — and their families — through an inconceivable day. Students and school staff immediately jumped into action. An ambulance crew just happened to be nearby, and arrived at the scene within three minutes. Other students who could have easily been hit weren’t, freeing the personnel at Dixie Regional’s emergency department to focus their efforts on Dane and Alex.
Both of the boys were in bad shape. Alex wasn’t breathing and suffered from significant burns and neuro- logical damage; Dane was in cardiac arrest for 38 minutes after the direct strike that entered the top of his head and traveled through his body and out the bottom of his feet.
Doctors called in the Life Flight fixed-wing plane, which remained on stand-by waiting for the weather to clear enough to take Alex to a burn unit in Las Vegas. When Dane was finally revived, doctors decided to send him out on the same Life Flight plane as well.
In the midst of all the uncertainty and turmoil of those first couple of hours, “The Life Flight nurses Jana and Angie gave me such a sense of peace,” says Leslie. “They knew exactly what they were doing. One of them told me they’d call when they landed in Las Vegas. I felt so much better just knowing they were taking care of them.”
After nearly two months of surgeries and recovery, Alex and Dane were recently reunited for the first time outside of a hospital setting when Alex was finally released from Dixie Regional’s acute rehabilitation unit. And while it will be awhile before things are back to the way they were before the lightning, both moms agree that miracles have happened all along the way.
“Everything just fell into place,” says Kaleen. “It has all been for a purpose.
“It was just a year ago that the kids sat in that Life Flight helicopter,” she continues, noting that “you just never know when something will hit close to home. If it weren’t for Life Flight, they would not have lived. I know that.”
“I’m Life Flight’s biggest fan!” agrees Leslie with the enthusiasm of a mom who has seen a child come back from the edge of death. Story By: Kristy Ann Pike
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