Denver, CO(KSDK) - Thelast time Rick Hamilton was in Denver he'd suffered a stroke at 40,000 feet.
Now he returns to the mile high city, reuniting with the team of doctors, nurses and paramedics who saved his life.
When Rick Hamilton left Denver's University of Colorado Hospital, he was thankful to be alive. Now nine months later, in lieu of dozens of handwritten notes he'd thought about sending, Hamilton has stopped in to say thanks to the people who saved him.
"I've been saying to myself all day, it's going to be tough to get through," said Hamilton. "But I think stroke causes that doesn't it."
Hamilton a banking software salesman from Godfrey, Illinois was on a flight headed to Salt Lake City last October when he suffered a stroke at 40,000 feet. The planets seemed to align when a flight attendant noticed Hamilton's symptoms, an emergency room doctor on board diagnosed stroke, and the pilot landed the plane quickly.
Hamilton ended up at UCH and in the hands of doctors, nurses and staff trained to deal with stroke and deal with it fast.
"Rick as you probably all know was treated in 18 minutes," said Dan Meyers, UCH Communications Director. "The goal would be about an hour, this is actually the graph of the stroke time treatments, that's you, that really low spot there."
"Certainly we've never had a case from a jumbo jet, there's no question about that," said Dr. Robert Neumann.
After Dr. Neumann received that first call from the plane, the stroke team went into action.
"On our end our team does everything very very quickly, it's a fairly well coordinated ballet," said Dr. Neumann.
Read this article:
Stroke patient reunites with lifesavers in Denver