Trauma surgeon Brian Smith, MD, and his team prepared for the worst on Jan. 11, when they got the alert that a medical helicopter had crash-landed in Drexel Hill and the pilot and crew were being transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Helicopter accidents, while rare, are often fatal.
Incredibly, everyone survived. Pilot Danial Moore was the only one who required surgery, with injuries to his ribs, chest, and spine. Moore’s flight nurse and medic suffered only minimal injuries, and the two-month-old baby they had been transporting from WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was unhurt.
“It was pretty amazing to see his crew members come through really unscathed,” Smith told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s … a testament to Dan’s skill to get that thing onto the ground. His talent saved the lives of everybody else on that helicopter.”
The helicopter was 10 minutes from CHOP that day when it went down around lunchtime, hitting the street and skidding onto a church lawn. In what first responders and witnesses called a miracle, not only did the pilot, crew, and passenger survive, but Moore managed to avoid hitting power lines, pedestrians, or buildings – including the church, where a nursery school was preparing for dismissal. Only some landscaping was damaged.
In addition to his full-time job as a medevac helicopter pilot for Air Methods, Moore has held a similar role since 1998 with the District of Columbia National Guard, where he is also his unit’s aviation safety officer. Earlier in the pandemic, Moore served as director of operations for a COVID-19 field hospital in Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 16, police officers, medics, and firefighters from at least three states lined up outside the ER/Trauma entrance to honor Moore with a traditional “clap out,” giving him applause and salutes before he boarded an ambulance to return home. Members of the Presby care team, along with Upper Darby Township’s police superintendent, mayor, and fire chief, joined the send-off.
As the latest variant of the coronavirus surged, it felt especially good to celebrate a heroic landing, four lives saved, and a happy ending.
Addressing news crews, Moore reflected on his lifesaving mission and gave thanks to his crew, the first responders who helped that day, and the “everyday heroes” who “were running toward the burning helicopter rather than away from it.”
Moore also publicly thanked Smith, who performed his chest wall surgery, and his primary dayshift nurse, Garrett Figueroa, BSN, RN-BC. Moore’s fiancé, Gail Miller, a nurse and former firefighter and EMT herself, had asked Figueroa to walk beside Moore as he left the hospital.
“Garrett was on top of absolutely everything,” Moore said from his home in Virginia. “He was very professional and very caring. I felt like he cared about me.”
Figueroa, a nurse in the trauma stepdown unit on Cupp 4 East, originally heard about the crash on the way into work and had a feeling the survivors might end up on his floor. He said Moore, who by this point was being widely hailed as a hero, was humble and wanted to be treated like any other patient.
“Even though he saved all of the lives on the helicopter, he didn't gloat about it and wanted to be treated like every other patient that came to Penn Medicine,” Figueroa said. “It was a surprise to me when he thanked me on television. I felt very honored to have cared for him.”