Drew Harris doesn’t remember very much about July 19, 2009, but it’s a day his brother Sean will never forget, especially now that he works for the same CommonSpirit Health Flight for Life team in Colorado that provided critical care after a traumatic brain injury and helped his family during one of their darkest moments.
“After Drew’s injury, that’s … when I learned about becoming a flight paramedic or a flight nurse, that that is even a career option,” Sean Harris said. “The flight paramedic that my parents were talking to was so cool, calm, collected, and brought a sense of control to the room. I really try to take that to heart.”
Their mom, Melissa Harris, said she’s felt nothing but pride in the 17 years since Drew’s injury as she’s watched one of her sons undergo a miraculous traumatic brain injury recovery while the other underwent the years of training necessary to staff a medical helicopter in Colorado like the one that saved his brother’s life.
“The whole process is a miracle, and it changed our family immensely,” she said.
A Fateful Accident
The entire Harris family loves the outdoors, and the day of Drew Harris’s injury, they were just beginning a camping trip in Redstone, a small community tucked in the mountains west of Aspen.
Drew Harris, who was just seven years old at the time, was helping his dad unload their camper when he was struck in the head by a metal bar that was part of the hitching system. Even though it didn’t pierce his skin, Melissa Harris said she immediately knew that something was wrong, and they rushed him to the closest volunteer fire station.
“Nobody was there; they were closed. We went to the next town,” she said. “Finally, we were able to get the EMTs to arrive.”
Drew Harris was rushed to the local hospital in an ambulance and became unresponsive. The family later learned that he had fractured his skull.
“I remember it was the worst day of my life,” his dad, Rob Harris, said through tears. “I felt like everything was just falling apart.”
The doctors called Flight for Life Colorado, and when the medics came in, both Melissa and Rob Harris said they felt a jolt of relief.
“When those paramedics walked in … we were just overcome with a sense of peace and calm,” Rob Harris said. “They allowed us to basically kiss [Drew] on the forehead, and we walked the gurney out to the Flight for Life helicopter.”
He added: “I remember the neurosurgeon looking at Melissa and I, saying: ‘Look, I’m not going to lie to you guys, I don’t know if he’s going to make the trip. Please kiss him goodbye, just in case.’”
A Miraculous Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery
Back in Denver, doctors told Melissa and Rob Harris to prepare for the possibility that Drew wouldn’t wake up, and that if he did regain consciousness, he might never walk or talk.
“And that miracle boy of ours … came to consciousness four days later, and within six or seven hours … there is Drew standing,” Melissa Harris said. “He got out of bed by himself and was standing there looking at us.”
They took him home five days later.
Drew Harris’ TBI recovery story has been nothing short of a miracle. After he was discharged from the hospital, he worked with a neuropsychologist, and despite having unique learning needs in middle and high school, has found success.
“Through culinary school, I was top of my class, went back to get my associate's in IT, and graduated on the president’s list with a 4.0,” he said.
The Road to a Flight for Life Career
The day of his brother’s injury, while his parents were in another room talking to clergy and medical staff, then-12-year-old Sean Harris found himself in the thick of the action. He stood in front of the trauma bay doors and watched emergency responders intubate Drew and place a bolt to measure brain swelling.
Doctors eventually ushered Sean Harris away, but not until he saw enough to shape his future career.
“I remember talking to [Sean] … it was like a year or so later,’” Melissa Harris said. “I asked, 'How did you handle that, watching all of that?' And he said, 'Well, Mom, what I did was I told myself that's not my brother in there... That's the only way I could do it. That's not my brother in there, but someday I'm going to save people.'”
Sean Harris said he always wanted to end up in some form of healthcare — in fact, back in preschool, he used to bring band-aids in case his friends got hurt on the playground. Still, his brother’s injury is what ultimately inspired him to take that dream more seriously.
“I want to be the first person there to help somebody,” he said. “I didn’t think I really fell in love with flight medicine until probably around late high school, early college … around 17, 18 is when I wanted to just be a paramedic in an ambulance, but how cool would it be to be a paramedic in the sky as well?”
Achieving that dream wasn’t easy.
Sean Harris completed a four-month EMT course after graduating from high school, and even skipped his senior homecoming to do a shadowing shift in a local ER.
His brother’s traumatic brain injury recovery inspired him to pursue a college degree in neuroscience. After graduation, he spent time as an EMT and Denver Health paramedic before finally achieving his dream and getting hired on the CommonSpirit Health St. Anthony’s Flight for Life team, one of the most prestigious air ambulances in the mountain region.
“It means a lot that he’s almost dedicated his whole life because of what he saw and what I went through,” Drew Harris said. “I’m so glad people like him exist. Hearing [his] stories, just imagining if that was my friend, my parent, my sibling — those medics in those helicopters are true heroes.”
Rob Harris echoed this sentiment, saying he feels profound gratitude for both Sean and the Flight for Life medics who were there during those dark moments in July 2009.
“It’s not just a job; you don’t go in nine to five,” he said. “You do what you have to do to save a life. We can never thank them enough for what they did.”
