Health First's first flight reunites motorcycle accident victim with medical teams who saved him.

Holden vividly recalls the moment the semi-truck pulled out in front of his motorcycle on U.S. 1 last October, seconds before he knew a collision was inevitable.

The 22-year-old remembers lying on the concrete, coughing up blood and overhearing someone on the scene saying to his best friend, “Hey, man. Your buddy’s not going to make it.”

That’s why it was so surreal for Holden to visit the medical professionals at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center who saved his life, nearly a year after the crash that almost killed him, leaving him with broken ribs, collapsed lungs, a lacerated spleen and more. Holden was flown in on Health First’s First Flight, the same aircraft that ushered him to the trauma team at Holmes Regional after the accident. In addition, Holden was taken on a tour of the Trauma Center and Surgical Intensive Care Unit, where he was to be reunited with the doctors, nurses and other associates who saved his life that day.

“It was definitely a whole new experience,” Holden said after exchanging plenty of hugs with associates and getting the VIP treatment. He was elated “seeing everyone, meeting the flight crew, because that part, I don’t even remember. I’m very grateful.”

The day of Holden’s near-fatal accident, he had been riding with a friend after both received tattoo consults. The full-sleeve design he had envisioned morphed into something more meaningful after the experience – a motorcycle angel leading up to the gates of heaven.

“There was no way I would’ve survived that if I didn’t have an angel with me,” Holden said. “I wanted to have a guardian angel on my left arm, close to my heart.”