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fellow employees.

“Blake is the nurse you hope you have if you are ever sick, but he’s also the nurse you would want taking care of a loved one,” said Jenean Lord, RN. “He’s the colleague you want on your team when times are tough, and he is a well-raised young man, respectful, honest, mannerly, fun-loving, tender-hearted, skilled and always positive. Blake has become one of those ‘informal leaders’ and is a tremendous coach and preceptor.”

Meadows never realized just how important the relationships he was forming with co-workers would be until April 27, 2011, when his family home in Eclectic, Ala., was destroyed by one of the many devastating tornadoes that hit the state that day. “I had a terrible day at work that Wednesday, with many criti-cal patients,” he said. “I was late getting off work, and when I left I called my parents to let them know I was coming home. I talked to my mom about 8:15pm, and she told me she was in the hallway with Lucy, my dog, and that my dad was watching the news to check the path of the tornado.

“I told her I was going to call every 10 minutes to check on them. At 8:30, no answer; 8:40, no answer; and 8:50, no answer. That’s when I knew something was wrong.”

Once he reached Eclectic, Meadows was able to park in a ditch a couple of miles from his home. Because of his medi-cal training, law enforcement offcers allowed him through the barricades that had been set up by the Elmore County sheriff’s

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After they gathered their bearings, Meadows and his brother got on their hands and knees to feel for pavement, so they would know which way to go. It took an hour to reach their parents, and when they did, the smell of propane flled the air. “I’ve lived on the lake for 27 years, and I was lost in the de-struction,” Meadows said.

Once he was able to determine the severity of his mother’s injury—a compound fracture of the left leg—he splinted it with wood from the debris and a ski rope. Firefghters from a volunteer fre department fnally reached them, and they were able to get his mother via boat ramp and pontoon boat to a waiting ambulance. Both of his parents were transported to Russell Medical Cen-ter, where medical offcials decided to transport his mother im-mediately to Montgomery for surgery.

Today, Meadows’ mother is still undergoing rehabilitation but is going to make a full recovery. Without her son’s heroism, the outcome could have been quite different.

Meadows is thankful for the overwhelming support of his Jackson Hospital family, friends and volunteers, who are helping to rebuild his family’s home from the ground up.

“The night of the storm, someone said our physical house was unable to protect my parents, but the house of faith and the Lord did,” Meadows said. “Being a strong believer in God and his ways, I know that he really did have his hand on my family that night. We are truly blessed.”