Finding Pride Through Pain

Today was an interesting day...seconds, minutes, hours like any other...but really it was ONE phone call and ONE question that has stuck with me.

As news anchors/reporters, sometimes we might be viewed as emotionless because in all honesty, someone's worst day is usually a news station's best day. It offers a chance to compete with the other stations. Who will have the best video? Where will they find most compelling interview? What is the story within the story? As far as emotionless? You couldn't be further from the truth.

Last night, the Rockford area lost three amazing individuals in a helicopter crash. All were members of the Rockford Memorial Hospital REACT team. People that devoted their lives to helping others, saving the lives of complete strangers.

What is better than people that genuinely value a human life?

They were dispatched to Mendota to pick up a patient. They never made it. Exact details on why the helicopter went down still aren't clear.

Honoring the Victims (Left to Right, Bios Courtesy of Rockford Health System)

Flight Nurse Jim Dillow, R.N., 40, joined Rockford Memorial Hospital in 1996. He was an experienced critical care nurse and emergency room nurse and had more than 10 years of experience as a flight nurse.

Flight Nurse Karen Hollis, R.N., 48, began her career at Rockford Memorial Hospital in 1986 and worked as a critical care nurse. She held leadership positions as a Clinical Resource Coordinator and a Trauma Nurse Coordinator and had more than 10 years of experience as a flight nurse.

Pilot Andy Olesen, 65, was employed by Air Methods, our contracted provider of aircraft services. Andy was an experienced pilot when he began flying for Air Methods in 1994 and had been a pilot for REACT for about five years.

With details still so new and information coming in by the second, I answered a phone call after the morning show around 7:15 am. The man on the other side of the line simply said...

"What was the name of the pilot in that helicopter that crashed?"

I paused before answering because it was at that point that I realized I would either make his day, or ruin it in a big way. Would he know the person? Or be thankful it wasn't someone he knew?

Like my colleagues and friends in television, we read stories about death, murder, and rape almost everyday. We relay facts to a camera, that go out to an audience. The camera is the layer between a news anchor and reality for someone potentially watching. I realize it's what I signed up to do. I love what I do. I guess it's the sad/painful stories that make telling the good, happy ones, that much sweeter. 

Back to the phone call and the question. I told the man, "Andy Olesen." He repeated the name, said thank you and hung up. I'll never know if he knew him or not. 

I just hope the families and friends of the victims can somehow find peace.