News

Actions

Nebraska State Patrol helps rush potentially life-saving medicine to Colorado

Posted at 12:35 PM, Jun 01, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-01 12:35:49-04

AURORA, Colo. - A child at Children's Hospital Colorado needed a potentially life-saving medication Tuesday night  - and it took a never-been-done-before relay to receive it.

Nebraska State Patrol Lt. Matt Sutter said he received a call asking for help, because Children's Hospital Colorado needed medicine to treat a child with a brain cell-eating amoeba.

The closest hospital with the rare medicine was the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, more than 500 miles away from Aurora.

Usually, the medicine would be flown to Colorado. But the weather was too poor for a small plane to fly it Tuesday night.

"This was extremely unique, based on the sheer distance it had to go and the minimal time frame we had to get it there," Lt. Sutter told KDVR.

So Lt. Sutter created a relay with troopers to drive the medicine across the state to North Platte, where the weather was better.

Then a plane from Great Plains Health flew it to the Centennial Airport, where Colorado State Troopers rushed it to the children's hospital.

"At that point, you kind of have that sigh of relief that you got the job done," Lt. Sutter said.

Children's Hospital Colorado said it couldn't talk about the medicine or the effort to get it to Colorado because of patient privacy laws.