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CARLSBAD – For Ronel Sizer, the front line of the COVID-19 health crisis is thousands of feet above ground.
He’s a paramedic with Air Methods who has flown patients out of rural Carlsbad in southeast New Mexico to major hospitals in Lubbock or other nearby cities almost every day since the pandemic hit the state in March.
Paramedic with Air Methods Ronel Sizer inspects a medical helicopter before beginning his shift Dec. 23 on base at the Carlsbad Air Terminal. (Adrian Hedden/Current-Argus)
With only a small medical center in town, patients experiencing the worst of COVID-19 must be transported from the small city to a major hospital often across state lines to receive treatment in an intensive care unit.