SALADO, Texas — A STAR Flight crew used a short-haul maneuver to rescue three boaters who went over a spillway at Lake Mexia, and later learned that a STAR Flight nurse fell from a hoist line during a separate rescue.
Howard Polden, a flight nurse for more than 30 years, told KWTX that the triumph of their rescue was overshadowed by news that flight nurse Kristin McLain fell to her death while performing a hoist rescue of a woman in the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
“Our management team struggled with that; whether to cancel us or not,” Polden said. “But they felt the gravity of the rescue that we were going to perform was more important, and we did that rescue and were not told until after.”