Piedmont Columbus Regional has named Tom Shaffer, Matt Huddleston, and Nick Simons with Air Methods Lifesaver the organization’s First Friday Heroes for the month of October.

The helicopter crew responded to a call where a woman had a bad headache, left-sided weakness, garbled speech, high blood pressure, and vomiting. They intubated her to allow for better breathing and flew her to Piedmont Columbus Regional Midtown’s Emergency Trauma Center. The patient was immediately taken to CT, and it was discovered she had a ruptured brain aneurysm. The patient was stabilized and transferred to Piedmont Atlanta Hospital for a higher level of care.

At Piedmont Atlanta, the patient immediately underwent surgical drain placement to relieve brain pressure and later had surgery to repair the ruptured aneurysm. Three days later she was awake, alert, and had no lingering effects from what could have been a devastating stroke.

A ceremony with the helicopter crew and hospital leadership will be held at a later date to commend them for their response. Their story is also featured throughout the hospital on commemorative posters and Piedmont Columbus Regional’s social media pages.

Piedmont Columbus Regional created the First Friday Hero program in mid-2016 to recognize first responders each month who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Their line of work is often a thankless job and we want to make the community aware of our local heroes and all they do to make Columbus a better and safer place.