Haydn Michael Tijerina joined UT Health East Texas EMS|AIR1 on Dec. 3, 2018, and is already making a difference in his patients’ lives. On Jan. 21, Haydn and his partner responded to an individual living alone. The house was not in good living condition; no doors, windows, heat or air conditioning, the refrigerator was not working and there was no toilet. This individual only ate canned goods out of a can.
Athens resident Meagan Sims remembers what it felt like as a young girl to be hospitalized and scared at Christmas, but she recalls it fondly because of the generosity of others.
“While I was there it was so wonderful because these different people would come in at different times and drop off gifts. One time, I woke up and looked down and there was a stuffed animal tucked under my arm, another time it was a coloring book,” Sims said. “It meant so much to me then that someone thought about me at Christmas when I couldn’t be home with my own tree.”
Chelsea Dillard was planning to have her daughter, Devinity, at UT Health Jacksonville just like she’d had Devinity’s older brother three years earlier, in one of the hospital’s comfortable labor and delivery rooms.
Devinity had other plans, deciding to make her entrance into the world earlier than expected – in the back of an ambulance just a few short minutes from the hospital.
Dillard was taking a bath at her home in Rusk on Halloween night when her water broke. Realizing the baby was coming quicker than anticipated, she called an ambulance.
After more than 50 years working for the hospital, now known as UT Health Tyler, Julia Bell is now retiring but she has no plans of slowing down.
Bell started at the hospital in November 1964 as a nurse aid and later moved into in laundry services, where she spent the majority of her career. She retired last Friday as Director of Laundry Services.
“There’s been a lot of changes because when I first came it was just two floors,” Bell said. “I’ve seen it grow and grow and grow.”
UT Health East Texas Air 1, with a 33-year-old history of safe flights, avoided a collision with a drone this week after dropping off a patient at a Dallas hospital.
“We had received information from the Love Field tower about other aircraft in the area and ten seconds later a drone appears in our flight path and I had to bank to the right to avoid a collision,” said UT Health East Texas Air 1 pilot Clint Burleson. Flight medic Charles Cooper and flight nurse Celie Pyle were also on board. Burleson has been flying helicopters for over 15 years including in the military.
Tyler, Texas (April 19, 2018) UT Health East Texas EMS, with a 50 year history of providing quality service to the communities of East Texas, rolled out its new ambulance design during a reveal celebration at EMS for its state-of-the-art units that transport over 100,000 patients each year.
“We are excited to unveil the first ambulance that features the new UT Health East Texas EMS logo and colors,” said Moody Chisholm, president and CEO of UT Health East Texas. “Over the next several months, all 50 ambulances and EMS support vehicles will be branded with the new look.”