Life Saving, Life Changing
Bend woman saved by Air Life 20 years ago gives thanks
On an August morning 20 years ago, Boni Piatt, her husband and mother-in-law decided to go fishing. The California couple was visiting Piatt’s mother-in-law in Philomath, Ore., and that morning piled in a pick-up truck heading east along Highway 126 toward Santiam Pass. At the junction with Highway 20, the pick-up was struck head-on by a tractor-trailer. Piatt’s mother-in-law was killed, as was the 7-month-old baby Piatt was carrying.
“If it hadn’t been for St. Charles and all my doctors, I would have been dead,” Piatt said. “If it hadn’t been for the nurse in the Air Life helicopter I would have died.”
Although it has been 20 years, Piatt said, she is still recovering from her extensive injuries and has only recently wanted to learn the details of the accident. She now wants to thank the nurses who treated her and held her hand, the doctors who performed life-saving operations and the Air Life of Oregon staff who flew to her rescue.
According to her hospital discharge summary, Piatt suffered multiple traumatic injuries to her chest and abdomen. She sustained a severe head injury and was in and out of consciousness for most of the nearly two months she spent at St. Charles Bend.
When she was released in October 1987, Piatt transferred to a rehabilitation facility in San Diego to be closer to her parents. She remained in California for another four years before deciding to move back to Bend, closer to the site of the accident and the medical community that saved her.
“The nurses and doctors would walk up to me and say, ‘Boni Piatt? You’re walking and talking? Oh my gosh,’” Piatt said. “I would get excited about being here because people cared.”
That caring and dedication is still strong among the Air Life staff today, said new Director Chris Pollard. “We have a longevity and commitment to the communities we serve,” he said.
At the time of Piatt’s accident the Air Life program was 2 years old. The air ambulance service had one helicopter, a shoestring budget and a staff of three, said Bill Porter, clinical director of Air Life today. “It was rare for a town as small as Bend was back then to have an air ambulance service,” Porter said. “Most air ambulances were in urban settings.”
In its early years, Air Life made only about 100 flights a year, Porter said. The service has grown to provide more than 1,400 annual flights. “We do more flights than anybody in the state,” Porter said. “We have more aircrafts and more bases.” Not only does Air Life save thousands of lives a year today, but it has maintained its dedication to helping those in need, like Piatt, for more than two decades.