Honorees

← Back to directory

Year Honored
2001
Honoree
Karen Scherer
Agency
Air Evac Life Team
Agency City
West Plains
Agency State
MO
Last Call
12/22/88
Cause of Death
Medical Aviation Accident
Biography
High above us looking skyward there's a team of lifesavers passing by. Listen; hear the steady beat, like drummers in the sky. You can't see up so high, but there's swift action taking place inside. "Live, live, come on live!" Later, the team of soldiers remembers the patient, but barely remembers being in the sky. Those medical teams in their flying machines; such caring, wonderful people. Did I hear someone call them heroes in flight? This one had just begun.<br /> <br /> Karen Scherer lost her life when the Bell Long Ranger helicopter crashed into a veil of fog in an open field on December 22, 1988. Another team member and a seven-year-old patient were killed, although the critically injured pilot survived. The aircraft was en route to St. Francis Medical Center form Marion, Illinois after picking up the child who had been injured in an automobile accident.<br /> <br /> Karen, 26, was a flight nurse with Air Evac Life Team. Two scholarships have been established in memory of the medical workers killed. The Karen Scherer Scholarship fund has been established at Anna-Jonesboro High school, and the St. Frances Huttegger-Scherer Educational Endowment for people pursuing health-care careers.<br /> <br /> Her parents, Francis and Beverly Scherer, survive Karen Scherer. Her sisters Joan Baker and Rebecca Elzarad, and her brothers Mark Scherer, Jeffrey Scherer, James Scherer and Daniel Scherer also survive her.<br /> <br /> Honored 2001