Dennis Blackburn
STARS Very Important Patient
It was meant to be a birthday bash in the countryside. No one expected a big red helicopter to arrive.
“If STARS didn’t come out,” said Dennis Blackburn, “I don’t believe I’d be sitting here today.”
Blackburn, a STARS Very Important Patient, was celebrating his 33rd birthday at his dad’s acreage with his wife and friends when his pickup got stuck in thick mud. He went back for a tractor and chains. As rain and hail came down, he and a friend returned to the hilly pasture. Near the top of a hill, his friend jumped off. Blackburn realized he was in the wrong spot and pointed the tractor downhill.
“It started sliding because it was raining so hard,” he said. “I hit a badger hole… and it shot me off the tractor.”
As he fell, the tractor tumbled behind him.
“I tried to scurry out of the way… it hit me, and it just pushed me right into the ground,” he said. He believes the rain-softened ground may have saved his life.
When 911 heard “tractor rollover,” STARS was dispatched. Firefighters winched Blackburn up the hill, and STARS flew him to the hospital in 11 minutes – far faster than a rough 45-minute road trip. For someone with his catastrophic injuries and internal bleeding, every second counted.
He had serious internal injuries, including multiple broken vertebrae and ribs. Doctors feared he could be partially paralyzed. But within days, he stood, walked, and eventually left the hospital. A year and a half later, Blackburn reunited with his STARS crew.
“There was a lot of emotion,” he said.
Today, he speaks publicly for STARS. On a recent visit, he and his wife Emma introduced their baby boy to the STARS team.
“My wife is not a widow because of STARS,” he said. “Every day that I’m here is a day I almost didn’t receive.”
