Care Across New England: Kerry’s Story, 20 Years Later 

More than 20 years ago, on Sunday, January 30, 2005, Dana McCarthy returned home to find her answering machine blinking with half a dozen messages from the Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont. Her 20-year-old daughter, Kerry—a college student at the University of Vermont at the time—had been found unresponsive in her apartment after a carbon monoxide leak caused by a malfunctioning furnace.

Dana still remembers the chaos of trying to understand Kerry’s condition while doctors triaged her and the five other students poisoned by the leak.

“She was being air-lifted to Montreal—no, Boston—no, Syracuse… no, definitely Boston. And we needed to leave immediately!” Dana recalled.

A Longstanding Partnership
For decades, Boston MedFlight has supported our NEAA partners across New England when needs arise—ensuring patients receive critical care, wherever they are.

Ultimately, Boston MedFlight transported Kerry by helicopter to Massachusetts Eye and Ear. The medical team feared that Kerry’s brain had suffered such severe injury from the high level of carbon monoxide exposure that they told Dana it was unlikely her daughter would recover.

Kerry was placed in a hyperbaric chamber to infuse her brain with oxygen. For 36 long hours, her family waited. Then, on February 1, Kerry awoke.

“Her recovery was due in great part to the medics and pilots from Boston MedFlight, who got her to the hospital as quickly as possible. I will be forever grateful to Boston MedFlight and Mass Eye and Ear for saving my daughter’s life,” Dana said.

In the months that followed, Kerry and the other survivors played active roles in advocating for carbon monoxide detector legislation that soon became Vermont law and has undoubtedly saved countless lives since.

Today, more than two decades later, Kerry is a physical therapist and the owner of her own practice—an outcome made possible in part by Boston MedFlight’s rapid response and the expert care she received over two decades ago.