Nurse takes ambulance ride with patient to keep him healthy as he celebrates his new home

Nurse Jordan Cornelson usually works in a hospital neuro-trauma ICU.

On a recent September morning, she arrived at work at UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central and instead learned that she’d be making a very special day possible for an Army veteran who had been hospitalized with an infection.

Travis Blackman served in the military for eight years but was injured in a motorbike accident in 2017 after he left the service. Now partially paralyzed, Blackman uses a wheelchair.

Blackman was due to be the guest of honor at a celebration where he was set to receive the keys to a new accessible home that a veterans non-profit, developers and builders were giving him.

Then Blackman had to be hospitalized, and he resigned himself to missing the big event.

That’s when Cornelson and a team of medical pros and leaders at Memorial Hospital Central stepped up to help. They arranged for an ambulance to take Blackman to the celebration, and Cornelson accompanied him.

“The day went fantastically,” Cornelson said. “I was a little nervous because I’ve never done a transport and that’s not within our normal job scope to do something like that. But when I saw him, and he was so funny and warm, I thought ‘this is going to be the best shift ever.’ And it was.”

Cornelson said she immediately felt at ease with Blackman, who was cracking jokes with everyone. Team members who helped him included his nurse and team on the sixth floor, all of whom ensured that Blackman was dressed and ready. He was grateful to everyone who helped make sure he could attend the celebration.

“I am so grateful to the hospital for coordinating this and allowing me to go to the event,” Blackman said.

Blackman served in the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2016, deploying to Afghanistan in 2010 and 2013, and Africa in 2015. Blackman has been awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Army Commendation and Achievement medals, among others. Shortly after he was discharged, he was in an accident near Hartsel, Colorado, that left him with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. He was paralyzed from the chest down.

A nonprofit that supports veterans called Helping a Hero teamed with Lennar Homes and Norwood Development Group to provide Blackman and his three children with a new one-story, 2,600-square-foot home in Colorado Springs that would be fully accessible. By Sept. 25, the home was ready.

Blackman is especially excited about the home’s wide doorways and the bathroom’s roll-in shower. He plans to move in after he is discharged from Memorial.

During the special event, Cornelson said she “tried not to make him feel like a patient.”

She checked on him between interviews, photo sessions and chats with well-wishers to make sure that he felt well and was staying hydrated. Blackman was so busy enjoying the day that the biggest challenge was getting him back to the hospital on time.

Cornelson began her nursing career at Memorial in the emergency department and then moved three years ago to the neuro-trauma ICU. It’s where patients receive help after accidents like the one Blackman suffered. She loved being with her patient as he received the keys to his new home.

“It was an unusual day in the best way possible,” Cornelson said. “People kept saying ‘thank you’ to me, but I was so grateful. I felt so honored to get to go with him and see him get his house.”