Mother, Daughter Reunite With Health First First Flight Air Ambulance Crew Member 14 Years Later 

National Nurses Week ends on Mother’s Day

Two mothers and a daughter recall the air ambulance ride that changed a family.  

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Fourteen years ago, Elise Reynolds, 10, lay gazing out the large windows of a Health First First Flight air ambulance at the clear, bright stars. She was on a short flight to an Orlando hospital following a bad fall. Tiffany Bassani, then a flight nurse, was there to comfort her. 

Today, mother Anne-Marie Reynolds still recalls that moment – and is filled with gratitude – when she sees First Flight coursing across the sky, and Elise, 24, sees the whole thing through her mother’s eyes. 

“As a kid, it’s, ‘Whoo-hoo, a helicopter ride!’ Now I’m older, and it’s scary seeing it from her perspective.”

On Tuesday, mother and daughter reunited with Tiffany Bassani, a mom herself and now Director of Patient Logistics for First Flight.

“To have a patient return and see her doing as well as she is, it’s absolutely awesome,” Bassani said.

‘In Great Hands’

Health First’s First Flight is the area’s only air ambulance service, responding to car crashes and time-sensitive medical emergencies such as stroke – and transporting stabilized patients to and from medical campuses. Recently, the crew has been making more than 80 runs a month. 

For a single-aircraft emergency medical transport program in a mid-sized market, that’s covering a lot of ground, says Chief Flight Nurse and Program Manager Rob Spivey.

A few days after Thanksgiving, 2010, Elise Reynolds was at a friend’s house when she tripped on a paver and fell awkwardly into a kneewall. When Anne-Marie Reynolds ran over to her daughter, she was gasping, and beads of sweat were appearing. She was rushed to Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center, where imaging suggested she had fractured her liver. First Flight was called on to take her to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.

“Her dad and I were standing at the Emergency Room doors, sobbing, absolutely sobbing, as the helicopter went over our heads,” Anne-Marie remembered.

‘Something Really Serious’

Elise was stabilized, spent more than a week at the hospital, and was put on long-term bedrest but healed and suffered no lasting harm. Tall and athletic, she was a standout volleyball player in Melbourne High. This month, she graduated with a Business Marketing degree from Lander University.

“It’s tough to give your child away to be taken care of – but we knew she was in great hands,” Anne-Marie said.

“Living here in Brevard County, you know that at Health First there is a responsibility to the community. The dedication that the doctors have, the nurses. It’s just known. That gave me a sense of wellbeing at the time, knowing they were taking care of her,” she says.

“Again, being a kid, I don’t really remember much about that day, or flying in the helicopter, but reliving these experiences as an adult,” Elise said, wiping back tears, “it’s so emotional because something really serious could have happened to me if you weren’t here to help me, and it would have really negatively affected my family.”

At the reunion, Bassani and Elise sat in the aircraft, and the nurse explained to the former patient what they would have been doing to keep her stable and comfortable, including watching SpongeBob SquarePants on a screen Bassani carried with her.

“If Tiffany wasn’t there, I don’t know,” Elise said. “I’m so grateful.”

“This team is constantly training,” Bassani said of the First Flight team. “We push each other to be prepared for any emergency.”

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