MedEvac Foundation International has named Whitney Corby as its 2018 Patient of the Year and was scheduled to honor her at this past weekend’s annual Donor Recognition event, held in conjunction with the Air Medical Transportation Conference (AMTC).
Corby, the fourth annual winner of the award and an Air Methods patient, suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2013 after a car accident and has since become a neurology nurse caring for patients with injuries similar to her own.
The day after Christmas 2013, Corby, 24, from Winchester, Virginia, was driving at night near her former home in Corning, New York, when her SUV slid on black ice and collided with a tree.
Corby, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, along with a fractured skull, a broken cheekbone and collarbone, and bruised lungs, was transported by Air Methods to the closest available Level 2 trauma center, which was in Pennsylvania.
“If she had not been flown down here, she would not be here today,” Corby’s mother, Teresa, remembers physicians telling her. “It made me really realize that life is precious and you need to appreciate every minute that you have.”
Corby was in a coma for six days and then transferred to a rehabilitation center where she worked with speech, occupational and physical therapists where she retrained herself to talk, walk, eat, brush her teeth and perform other routine tasks.
After six months of extensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, Corby was able to resume normal life and re-enrolled in college.
In 2017, Corby earned a nursing degree from the Decker School of Nursing at State University of New York (SUNY) Binghamton.
She has since served as an intern at the same hospital where she underwent her inpatient rehabilitation, Unity Hospital in Rochester, New York. Today, Corby works on the neurology floor at Winchester Medical Center in Winchester, Virginia.
“Who better to serve as a neuro nurse than someone who has been through the same things as their patients? I want to use my experience to help others overcome similar traumas,” said Corby, who has no recollection of the crash or immediate aftermath.
“I am truly honored to receive this award and dedicate it to the air medical providers that helped me and continue to help others in need all over the country.”
“Through her perseverance and optimism, Whitney Corby most assuredly deserves to be named the MedEvac Patient of the Year,” said Steve Gorman, Air Methods’ chief executive officer.
“Her moving and inspirational story is also another example of the life-saving emergency care air medical providers deliver thousands of times each year. Our dedicated pilots and clinical teams around the country work tirelessly in all conditions to help patients have better outcomes.”
