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Davis Journal

Rock climber and artist found his calling as life flight nurse

Dec 29, 2021 03:35PM ● By Sarah Segovia

Palmer is also a skilled rock climber. Art and climbing help to quiet his mind that he said is usually going 1,000 miles an hour. Courtesy photo

Brent Palmer started out as an artist – until he found his true passion – being a life flight nurse and rescue operator. Now he combines both.

“During patient transports you never know what could happen,” said Palmer a Centerville local. “A patient’s heart could stop, they could stop breathing. Their life depends on your split-second decisions. As a life flight rescue operator, you often see people on the worst day of their life as they are going through something catastrophic. You’re there to help or console them.” 


It has been a hard journey, he said. “But I have been much happier being a nurse than an illustrator. As an illustrator you often work for hours on your own and you can feel very isolated. Being a nurse you get the opportunity to talk and connect with people. I'm a very social person, this suits me much better. As a kid, other kids would always ask me to draw tanks or dogs for them. After I graduated from high school I went on to study painting and drawing at the University of Utah. Then I worked as an illustrator for four years.” 


Palmer said he was the definition of a starving artist. “I was having a hard time making ends meet. My father-in-law at the time was a fireman. He told me about how he got to work four days on and three days off and I thought that would be a great way to still be able to pursue being an artist. Being a fireman did not work out for me, but through that I discovered nursing. Art was something I always had a natural knack for, but after I started nursing school I realized that was my life’s calling.”  

Palmer began his nursing career in the ICU, cardiac and trauma units. “I later interviewed to become a life flight nurse and to my surprise, I got the job! I have been a life flight rescue operator for 20 years now.”


Life flight teams usually consist of three people – the Paramedic – who is lowered down to do the rescue, the Pilot – who operates the helicopter and the Rescue Operator – who hangs off the side of the helicopter to help direct the pilot safely to the person who was injured. “I am a Rescue Operator,” said Palmer. “My love of climbing factored into how I became a life flight nurse. It helped me to be qualified to be a rescue operator. I have climbed for most of my life. I have climbed rocks, ice and more. Knowing how to manage the different types of terrain during a rescue is crucial.” 


Life flight rescue operations generally involve rescuing people who are injured by getting them off the mountain and to the hospital, he said. “We plan our rescues out very carefully and we don’t do anything that is too risky, despite what most people would think. Most life flight patients are not as badly injured or as risky to transport as patients from car accidents or hospital transport patients.” 


Palmer said once they picked up a hospital transport patient from a rural Utah hospital who had gone into cardiac arrest at home. “Someone performed CPR on them on and off for 20 minutes until they were able to get them into an ambulance. At their local hospital, the patient was put on a vent and we were called because the hospital there had done all that they could. We needed to transport the patient to a cath lab. When my life flight team and I arrived we realized the hospital staff there had not plugged the breathing machine into the oxygen. We worried the patient had suffered from oxygen loss and may end up brain dead. We got the patient plugged into the oxygen and gave the patient drugs to help their heart.”

The patient’s heart stopped twice after they arrived, he said. “We were able to bring them back, but we could not risk transporting the patient while in this condition. We told the patient’s family that if we could keep them stable for at least 10 minutes we would be able to load the patient into the helicopter. We waited. Finally, after 10 minutes had passed we loaded the patient into the helicopter for transport. The patient soon went into cardiac arrest again and we had to bring them back. We thought after the lack of oxygen and with their heart stopping several times that they wouldn’t make it.” 

Palmer said as they neared the hospital they were transporting the patient to, their heart stopped again. “We brought the patient back again. We did all that we could and got the patient into the hospital. With little hope I returned the next day to check on the patient. I could barely believe it when I learned that the patient had been moved out of the ICU and onto the main floor. In disbelief, I  went to find them. When I found them on the main floor, they said to me, ‘I have been waiting for you to come back, my spouse told me how hard you worked on me. Thank you.’ I burst into tears. I will tell you, that never happens.” 

When he worked in the shock trauma ICU, Palmer said they knew that on average about 30% of the patients were not going to make it. “We often had to resort to end-of-life treatment and would do everything we possibly could do for the patient. You see many patients go and it can be very easy to fall into this mindset that it is all futile. That doing more may be hurting more than helping, but that experience taught me a valuable lesson to never give up on anyone. Never assume that someone is too sick to recover. That experience completely changed my mindset. Now, I just give everybody every opportunity.” 

Palmer said the longer he does this job, the more cautious he is. “I understand how much I don’t know. Having to tell someone’s spouse or kids who may be in shock or grieving that you did everything you could really changes you. As hard as the job has been over the years, I am really grateful for that opportunity. You see the very best and worst of humanity, but I like being there with somebody in crisis to be able to bring them a little bit of peace. It is a very rewarding career and I can't imagine doing anything else.” 

Some of Palmer’s friends often find it very hard to understand what he does and some of the experiences he’s had. “My son has told me that this job has changed me,” said Palmer. “You have experiences as a nurse where you make a mistake or feel like you didn’t do the right thing. Sometimes you have a patient who passes or is potentially harmed and you have to live with that. And decide if you want to keep coming back to work. It is a very humbling experience. I am very lucky to have a son and wife who supports me through all of the ups and downs this job takes you through.” 

In the last five years, Palmer has gone back to painting and began to do woodworking. “It helps me to destress in between all the craziness of being a life flight nurse,” he said. “I enjoy painting portraits and figures. Occasionally I do landscapes. In nursing school, I studied anatomy and I was able to translate that to my art. That has been a great benefit of studying both. Art and climbing help to quiet my mind that is always going 1,000 miles an hour.” 

Palmer said he can’t imagine doing anything else. “I have eight years until I plan to retire. After I retire, I plan to work part time in a rural ER or ICU. My son is a climbing guide down in Moab and wants to start his own climbing company down there. I hope to move down there to be near my son. I can’t ever see myself doing anything else. In the last two years, the workload of nurses has doubled with the pandemic and I would have a hard time walking away from a job that's desperately needed. I feel like I have an obligation. I don’t feel like I am a ‘healthcare hero,’ I am just doing my job. I don’t feel like my job is more important than anyone else's, every job is equally important.” 

Brent is based in Centerville, where he has lived for 10 years. “In my line of work, I have been all over Utah from St. George to Orem and all over the valley,” he said. “Each area has its own flavor, but Centerville just suits me. Everyone here is nice and respectful.” 

To learn more about Palmer you can follow him @bprockkarma on Instagram.