From Patient to Employee – Derek Boehm Has a New Purpose After Helicopter Crash
Boehm says the crash created a new sense of purpose – a mission. “What better way to show appreciation than to work with the people who saved your life? I can say thank you a thousand times over, but I figure actions speak louder than words. I loved working at Valleywise.”
On Dec. 15, 2015, Flight Paramedic Derek Boehm was part of a three-man crew flying home after completing a patient transport when the helicopter crashed in a remote part of Arizona’s Superstition Mountains.
Pilot David Schneider died on impact. Flight Nurse Chad Frary survived the crash but soon succumbed to his injuries. Boehm, the sole survivor, spent hours alone in the dark and cold with life-threatening injuries, hoping to be found alive.
“There was nothing unusual or special about that day or that flight,” Boehm remembers. “Clear weather, no odd smells, nothing out of the ordinary. The helicopter hit the ground at about 130 miles per hour with an unbelievable and astonishingly violent impact, then rolled 2-3 times. The windshield blew out, and I felt debris and brush hit my face.”
“The silence after the impact was deafening,” he continued. “I just kept telling myself, ‘Just make it until morning,’ but the three hours I waited for rescue felt like an eternity.”
With two broken femurs, contact burns, and fractures of his scapula, ribs, and ankle, Boehm waited alone for help to arrive. Finally, he was able to signal a rescue crew with a flashlight to alert them of his location, but the rescue was treacherous. The crash site was on a highly steep mountainside covered with cactus and trees. According to rescue crews, there was no safe place to land nearby.
After being rescued, Boehm was transported to Valleywise Health for treatment. Upon arrival at Valleywise, he told the ER nurse, “I am one of you. Do what you need to do.”
“The experience of laying on the trauma table is something you don’t forget,” Boehm said. “I still remember how the room looked, the people and the smells. How they held my hand and genuinely cared about me.”
Since the crash, Boehm has had ten surgeries on his legs at Valleywise Health, spent three months in a wheelchair, and spent countless hours learning how to walk again. Following his long recovery, he completed training to become a registered nurse. Following his long recovery, he completed training to become a registered nurse and spent several years working alongside the same doctors and nurses who saved his life.
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