The Miracle Patient
Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, February 26, 2008
- <I>Contributed</I><BR>Air Life of Oregon made the difference when Zebulyn Kitchen was seriously injured in a snowmobiling accident.
Every morning Michele Moore sees the smiling face of 6-year-old Zebulyn Kitchen from a photograph on her refrigerator door and it gives her hope. The Medford boy is standing in front of the Air Life of Oregon helicopter, his shirt raised high to show off a scar running from below his belly button to the middle of his chest.
“He was a total miracle,” Moore, a respiratory therapist with Air Life of Oregon, said. A series of events came together on Dec. 9, 2006, when Air Life was called to Diamond Lake and the scene of a snowmobile accident. Zebulyn had been riding in front of his dad, Gene Kitchen, when their snowmobile skis snagged something bringing it to a dead stop. Before he flew over the handlebars, Kitchen’s weight slammed Zebulyn into the front of the machine.
“I looked back and he was standing on the side of the snowmobile, like everything was fine,” Kitchen said. “My wife saw the tail end of it and her mother instinct said, “No. Something is wrong.”
Zebulyn had no external signs of injury, but he began to quickly turn pale, and Gene became concerned his son was bleeding internally. Gene reached the 911 dispatch center in Roseburg on his cell phone. The dispatcher said she would send a ground ambulance, but Gene feared that would take too long and the dispatcher agreed to contact Air Life of Oregon in Bend.
Through a program known as Autolaunch, Moore said, she and flight nurse Pat O’Keeffe headed with an Air Life pilot toward Diamond Lake. Autolaunch means the helicopter or plane will take off when certain criteria are met without waiting for ground emergency medical technicians to first assess the patient. The program is designed to reduce total response times and improve patient outcomes.
After trekking through knee-deep snow to reach him, Moore and O’Keeffe loaded Zebulyn into the helicopter and began treating him. They called ahead to the St. Charles Bend emergency room and a surgeon was waiting when they landed to repair Zebulyn’s extensive internal damage. The surgery lasted five hours, Kitchen said, and he feared every minute for his son’s life.
Zebulyn, now 6, does karate and is back to riding his own snowmobile. He survived his massive injuries for a variety of reasons, Moore said. Air Life reached him in time, the surgeons performed brilliantly and everything important fell into place on that day. For their part, the Kitchens are eternally grateful that they get to watch Zebulyn grow up.
“We’re Air Life of Oregon members,” Gene Kitchen said. “It’s a small amount of (pocket) change. If I never have to use the service again, I can help somebody else who needs it or keep them flying. It saved my little boy’s life. I cherish every moment with him.”