Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
By CHARLIE BRENNAN and IVAN MORENO
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colo.)
Karen Woods, of Elizabeth, 43, a nurse and the mother of a 5-year-old daughter, was honored by her peers Tuesday.
Vicky Thomas, 35, a mother of three and an ultrasound technician at a North Platte, Neb., hospital, was keeping her pregnant sister-in-law company during an ambulance ride to Denver.
Woods and Thomas died Tuesday in a horrific crash on Colorado’s eastern plains after the ambulance they were in clipped the rear of a semitrailer truck.
Hours later, a critically injured Kelsey Schlichenmayer delivered a baby boy, several weeks premature. He was in serious condition at Swedish Medical Center, said spokeswoman Julie Lonborg, “but doing well.”
Schlichenmayer, 43, of Burlington, was upgraded late Wednesday to serious condition.
Schlichenmayer’s husband, Mark, “thanks the community, especially those in Burlington and Goodland, Kansas, for their thoughts and prayers,” Lonborg said.
Lonborg said Kelsey Schlichenmayer lived in Goodland before moving to Burlington.
The Rural-Metro Ambulance crew had picked up Schlichenmayer on Tuesday at Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte, Neb. - the same hospital where Thomas worked - planning to take her to Denver for prenatal care due to complications with her pregnancy.
She eventually got there in an AirLIFE helicopter.
‘Always there to help’
Gilbert Thomas, of North Platte, Vicky Thomas’ father-in-law and Kelsey Schlichenmayer’s father, was wrestling with his emotions Wednesday.
“It’s a lot of grief,” Thomas said. “When you lose someone you love so much - she was like a daughter to me.
“She was just a loving mother. She could say ‘no’ to nothing. And she was always there to help.”
Thomas said his daughter is “coming out of it a bit.”
Thomas started working at the hospital in 1997, according to Great Plains Medical Center President Cindy Bradley.
She is survived by her husband, Brent, and three children, ranging in age from 4 to 14.
Thomas quickly made her mark at the 750-employee hospital and was eventually joined there by her brother, Shawn Clark, a biomedical technician.
“She was very well known, very well liked and very active in her children’s activities - Boy Scouts and that sort of thing,” Bradley said.
“This is so difficult for this family,” she added.
In Colorado, Lee Woods said Karen Woods was “the love of my life.”
He said he’d known her 20 years, and they had been married for 10. Their daughter, Brooke, is 5.
“The lady was my biggest fan and my best friend,” he said. “I don’t know that I would’ve known true love and devotion if I hadn’t known Karen.”
Karen Woods had been a nurse for 10 years at the Medical Center of Aurora and worked part time as the head nurse for ambulances, transferring patients in critical care from one hospital to another.
Lee Woods said family members thought Karen was too emotional and sensitive to be a nurse.
But being a nurse “was just absolutely what she was supposed to do.”
He called her a “merciful caregiver” who cared for her mother-in-law before her death four years ago.
She had been nominated last year for the Florence Nightingale Award in nursing.
“It’s like the Heisman Trophy of nursing,” said Randy Reuben, 52, a fellow nurse who began her career working with Woods.
Tuesday night, just as rumors of Karen Woods’ death were reaching the hospital, her name was read at a Nurses Day dinner in recognition of her nomination, according to Carol Gregory, chief nursing officer at the Medical Center of Aurora.
“It just feels that it was very well timed that she was recognized,” Gregory said.
Excited by the trip
Woods said his wife was excited when she called him Tuesday morning to say she would be going to Nebraska, but would be back soon.
“I just thanked her for calling and told her that I loved her,” he said. “I told her, ‘I’ll see you when you get back.’ ”
The other occupants of the ambulance, driver Chris Larusso, 22, of Westminster, and another passenger, Dan Beza, 31, of Centennial, were treated at Sterling Regional Medical Center and released.
Chris Larusso’s father, Marty, said the crash has been difficult for his son.
“It’s a sad day for all of us,” said Larusso, 49, his voice cracking.
“We have been praying for all the families all day, and we send our heartfelt condolences for all the families.”
The Colorado State Patrol said the crash occurred about 4 p.m. Tuesday on westbound Interstate 76, about 15 miles west of Sterling, when the ambulance clipped a semitrailer truck as it was moving into the left lane to pass.
Trooper Eric Wynn said Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing.
“We know they were both in the right lane, and the ambulance was trying to change to the left lane,” Wynn said.
“Its right-front side collided with the left rear of the trailer and it pretty much destroyed all of that front portion of the ambulance, particularly on the right side,” he said.
The speeds the two vehicles were traveling has not been determined and no one has been cited.
A mechanical inspection of the ambulance, which was impounded by the State Patrol in Sterling, was under way Wednesday.
Ambulance accident at a glance
An update on victims of Tuesday’s crash in which an ambulance carrying a pregnant woman collided with a semi on Interstate 76 west of Sterling:
* Nurse Karen Woods, 43, Elizabeth, deceased
* Passenger Vicky Thomas, 35, North Platte, Neb., deceased
* Patient Kelsey Schlichenmayer, 43, Burlington, was upgraded Wednesday afternoon to serious condition. She gave birth to a boy Tuesday night at Swedish Medical Center-HealthONE; the baby is in serious condition.
* Driver Chris Larusso, 22, Westminster, treated and released
* Passenger Dan Beza, 31, Centennial, treated and released