[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 88 (Monday, June 21, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S7369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO SHEILA ZELLERS, BRIAN HARDEN, ERNIE JONES, AND DON GREEN

 Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
four brave individuals who lost their lives last week in a tragic 
helicopter crash in Breathitt County, Kentucky. Sheila Zellers, Brian 
Harden, Ernie Jones, and Don Green, were crew members on a helicopter 
providing emergency medical service to rural Eastern Kentucky. On 
Monday June 14, 1999, these dedicated care-givers were returning to the 
University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, 
Kentucky, from Breathitt County Airport. Tragically, they did not make 
it.
  Mrs. Sheila Zellers, of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, served as the flight 
nurse on the helicopter and had worked with the University of 
Kentucky's hospital for more than twenty years. She served in the 
hospital's neonatal intensive care unit and emergency room before 
becoming a flight nurse in 1991. More importantly, she was a loving 
wife and mother. Our hearts and prayers go out to her husband Jeffrey 
and their four sons.
  Mr. Brian Harden, from Richmond, Kentucky, was the paramedic on 
Monday's flight crew. While only 33, he had already had a distinguished 
career providing emergency medical services in Kentucky as a paramedic. 
Flight paramedics, such as Mr. Harden, are critical in providing 
emergency care from the time they leave the scene until they reach the 
hospital. I would like to extend the Senate's deepest sympathies to his 
wife Patricia, and their two young daughters.
  The helicopter's two pilots, Ernie Jones and Don Green, were both 
well-known among their colleagues as experienced, highly-skilled 
pilots. Frequently, the pilots who fly these emergency helicopters are 
called upon to land their helicopters in small parking lots, highways, 
pastures, and gorges, in order to safely evacuate their patients. Their 
families and friends will be in our prayers.
  It is important that we recognize the impact these individuals and 
their colleagues have on the citizens of Eastern Kentucky. Like so much 
of rural America, the residents of Eastern Kentucky lack easy access to 
the advanced medical resources and trauma centers available in more 
metropolitan areas. In order to provide this much needed care to 
Eastern Kentucky, the University of Kentucky Medical Center began 
helicopter flights to the region in 1987. For 12 years, these emergency 
medical crews have ferried accident victims, critically ill children, 
cardiac patients, and infants too ill to travel by ambulance to the UK 
Medical Center. It is not unusual for these dedicated caregivers to 
work twelve hour shifts and fly up to seven missions a day, each time 
making a difference in the lives of their patients. It is with this in 
mind that we recognize the sacrifices of these dedicated care-givers 
and note that they will be forever missed by their families, friends, 
colleagues, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

                          ____________________