Two ejected in major crash at Highway 70 and FM 892; HALO Flight responding<\/a><\/p>\nThe new facility, located on FM 665, is expected to be completed by Christmas 2026 and will include a modern dispatch center designed to better coordinate emergency flights across Halo Flight\u2019s expansive service area.<\/p>\n
The organization serves more than 1 million people across 23 counties, responding to emergencies from Laredo to Bay City to the San Antonio area, and everywhere in between.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CEO Travis Patterson said the dispatch center is one of the most critical \u2014 and challenging \u2014 parts of Halo Flight\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the 1,500 calls we get every year, they come into our dispatch center,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most challenging and difficult jobs in the company. They need to be able to track and control aircraft over a 24,000-square-mile area, and right now we\u2019re doing it in a room that\u2019s very outdated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those attending the groundbreaking was Halo Flight board member Darrell Nordeen, whose connection to the organization began as a patient.<\/p>\n
Nordeen and his wife, Rebecca, recalled the day that changed their lives \u2014 Father\u2019s Day in 2000 \u2014 when the family was driving home from church.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stopped at a stop sign and then pulled out on a little county road over here, 772, and was broadsided by a pickup truck,\u201d Darrell said. \u201cHe never hit his brakes, and it went about halfway through the driver\u2019s seat on my side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca and the couple\u2019s young daughter were taken by ambulance to local hospitals with minor injuries. Darrell\u2019s injuries were far more severe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lacerated liver, ruptured spleen, six broken ribs and a broken neck in two places \u2014 a C2, C3 fracture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Darrell spent nearly two months unconscious in the intensive care unit, much of that time in a medically induced coma.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in for about two months unconscious in the ICU \u2014 medical coma,\u201d he said. \u201cShe stayed by me all the time that she could.\u201d<\/p>\n
His recovery took another turn when he developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, a condition doctors warned often proves fatal in adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey told her most adults don\u2019t survive that,\u201d Darrell said, as Rebecca added with a laugh that she had been asked to sign paperwork.<\/p>\n
\u201cKind enough to sign to donate my heart,\u201d Darrell joked. \u201cAnd everything else,\u201d Rebecca added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the heart was the strong thing,\u201d Darrell said.<\/p>\n
That strength, the couple said, carried them through \u2014 along with their faith and their partnership. Married for 56 years, Darrell says the secret to that longevity is simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a man, learn to say \u2018yes dear,\u2019\u201d he said, prompting laughter from Rebecca.<\/p>\n
Owing Halo Flight his life, Darrell later joined the organization\u2019s board, determined to give back to the service he says made his survival possible.<\/p>\n
With construction now underway, Halo Flight leaders say the new headquarters will help ensure faster coordination, better communication and improved outcomes for future patients.<\/p>\n
They say the building represents more than bricks and mortar \u2014 it represents lives saved, stories continued and families kept whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Halo Flight broke ground on a new headquarters in Corpus Christi, board member Darrell Nordeen reflected on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-94629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}