National EMS Memorial Service Honoree

	Erin Leah Eachus Reed Airlift Northwest Seattle, Washington

When Erin stepped into an ER, a helicopter, a trauma situation or your living room, it never went without notice that a powerful skilled technician and larger than life persona had arrived. If you met her once, you never forgot her. With great humor, skill and adventure, Erin loved life. She was a certified international open water scuba diver and loved boating. Erin's wanderlust travels were documented with like passion, in her writing, photography and purchased artistic mementos.

Erin Eachus Reed, 48, of Seattle, Washington, was killed when the medical helicopter she was working on as a flight nurse crashed into Puget Sound September 29,2005. She, another flight nurse and pilot had flown a critically ill patient to Harborview Medical Center, Seattle. The accident occurred as the helicopter was returning to the base at Arlington Municipal Airport.

Erin became interested in emergency medical services in Colorado. In 1981 she moved back to California and became an Emergency Medical Technician, eventually becoming a paramedic and working in Santa Rosa, California. She earned the stature of becoming the first female firefighter/paramedic in Marin County. She received her RN degree in Boston, Massachusetts while working as a paramedic for Boston Medflight. Erin was an emergency room trauma nurse at Holston Valley Hospital in Tennessee where she received the Nora

K. Hurd award for exemplary service. She then attained her goal of becoming a flight nurse with Airlift Northwest, and was honored as Flight Nurse of the Year in 2001.

Erin was a member of the Emergency Nurses Association, the Air & Surface Transport Nurses Association and a former member of both the National Flight Paramedic's Association and California State Fireman's Association. When asked what was the most satisfying part of her job, she said "knowing that when I get one of those critically ill patients to the hospital alive – they wouldn't have made it without me."

Honored 2007