(Part 2): Flight Nurse Helicopter Crash Survivor Speaks: From Kidney Transplant to Saving Lives Through Legislation — Dave & Amanda Repsher

May 27, 2026

45:40

Kidney Disease Transplant Medicine Emergency Medicine

Episode Description

This is episode two of a two-part series.

Part 2 of one of the most powerful survival stories in nursing. Host Jana Price welcomes back flight nurse Dave Repsher and his wife Amanda — also a nurse — to continue the story they started in part 1.

After a helicopter crash left Dave with burns over 90% of his body, the fight to survive was only the beginning. In this episode, Dave and Amanda pick up where they left off and walk through the long road of recovery: a year of home dialysis, a kidney transplant from a stranger named Matt who has now become family, getting married in the ICU after 16 years together, and what life looks like on the other side of it all.

Jump Ahead:

00:38 — Welcome back and recap of part 1

03:40 — Dave's decision to fight: "We can't be angry"

08:05 — The power of hope and small acts from staff

11:21 — A nurse-patient's plea: talk to your sedated patients

12:45 — What separates new nurses from experienced ones

15:20 — A year of home dialysis: "Dialysis keeps you alive, but it's no way to live"

17:18 — Amanda's stress and the first 911 call from home

17:51 — Finding humor and independence on a tricycle with a bell

21:11 — The phone call: a donor named Matt

23:13 — Choosing to know your donor — Matt becomes family

25:56 — Married in the ICU after 16 years together

28:02 — The documentary "D-Rep" and the milk-jug fuel system

30:37 — A 2014 helicopter built to 1965 safety standards

32:19 — Why military helicopters got safer after Vietnam but civilian ones didn't

34:00 — Two federal laws in five years thanks to advocacy

35:52 — "Dave was the least physically injured from the crash"

37:57 — A company's staff who refused to fly without crash-resistant fuel systems

40:03 — 85% of the non-military fleet had no crash-resistant fuel systems at the time of the crash

41:23 — Life today: running a community ice rink in Colorado

42:23 — Continued advocacy and burn survivor support

44:32 — Closing thanks and where to find resources

They also share the advocacy work that came out of the crash. Dave's helicopter was brand new, but its fuel system was built to 1965 safety standards. The same fuel system has been described as no stronger than a milk jug. Together with the pilot's widow Karen, Dave and Amanda helped push two pieces of federal legislation through Congress to require crash-resistant fuel systems on newly manufactured helicopters. A medic recently texted them after walking away from a crash because of the very system they fought for.

This is a conversation about hope, advocacy, and what it really means to make good come out of tragedy. Listen to part 1 now at nurse.org/nurseconverse.

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