WESTON - Paramedics rarely get to see the fruits of their labor.
They do their job - stabilizing the patient and move on.
But that recently changed when a family reunited with the Ministry Healthcare team that saved their child's life.
The Marks's vacation became anything but that last year.
6-month-old Marcus's fall shifted the trip from a campsite in the Upper Peninsula to an emergency room in Marshfield.
"Nothing stood out as being majorly traumatic," Michelle Marks said at first after her son fell from their car.
That's was Michelle Marks first thought.
Her son Marcus had fallen out of their car and hit his head on a running board - but he seemed fine - at first. So they continued the drive to the campsite.
"When I got him out he seemed more lethargic, and he couldn't look at me," Michelle said.
"His eyes kind of went everywhere. He started vomiting, and we didn't waste any time."
They didn't waste time driving to the nearest hospital.
Neither did the crew at Ministry Eagle River Memorial Hospital.
"Right away Dr. Brodhead said 'get the bird in the air'," Marks recalls.
The Spirit Air Flight crew would be the difference.
"It's the difference between having a child that has lasting brain damage or one that is developmentally on track," Spirit Flight Nurse Colleen Herda said.
Herda worked on Marcus on the 45-minute flight from Eagle River to Marshfield.
"We saw ,it take off above the trees and just head off until we couldn't see it anymore," Marks said.
The group drove more than two hours to Marshfield, without Marcus. Doctors operated on Marcus in Marshfield as mom moved in.
"Basically he fractured his skull and it severed a blood vessel causing internal bleeding," Marks said.
"The doctors in Eagle River load the X-rays, the CT scans, and all of the information into the computer," Herda said.
"The neurosurgeon in Marshfield was able to pull those off, look at them, they made their plan of surgery and they had all of their ducks in a row before we even landed."
The system worked as it's supposed to. A life saved. 4 days in the ICU - heading home on Day 5.
"A lot of times we don't get to see the end results, people don't remember us," Herda said.
"We don't see the end results like we do here."
"They see him for such a brief time, then you don't see these people ever again," Marks said.
"I want them to know that they did a good job and that my son is still here running around because of everything they did."
Running around with just a simple scar to show for it.
Mom says he's taken an interest in helicopters, can't imagine why.
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