“I get to connect people all around the world,” she said. “I can do that because of what the MetroHealth team did for me.”
The first time Addie Mrosko signed up for the Resiliency Run was in 2022. A casual runner, she was excited to participate in the 5K run at the event that raises funds to benefit trauma and burn survivors who receive critical care at MetroHealth.
Addie also looked forward to connecting with the caregivers who saved her life in 2011 – from the first moments on the Metro Life Flight helicopter – operated by Metro Aviation Inc. – through the 35 nights she spent in the ICU and Brain Injury Unit, and months more of care.
But as a junior pilot for a regional airline, Addie ended up having to work the same weekend as the Resiliency Run. She’d try again another year.
Eleven years earlier, on June 4, 2011, Addie had just finished 8th grade. She was 14 and enjoying the first day of summer break.
That afternoon, she left her house in rural Geauga County and hopped on a four-wheeler all-terrain vehicle for a ride.
About an hour later, heading home for dinner, Addie entered a blind bend in the road caused by a cluster of trees. Seconds later, she collided head-on with a van.
Addie didn’t remember the Metro Life Flight helicopter that rushed her to MetroHealth Medical Center for emergency surgery. She didn’t remember the care she received from the flight crew. For nine days she was in a medically induced coma.
When she finally woke up, Addie had been moved out of the Pediatric ICU to another floor until a room became available in the Brain Injury Unit.
Addie’s father, Bob, explained everything. The accident. Her injuries – a shattered femur in her left leg, two collapsed lungs, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen, nerve damage in her left arm, a broken neck and four skull fractures that caused a traumatic brain injury.
Addie spent 35 nights at MetroHealth, undergoing several surgeries and receiving inpatient speech, physical and occupational therapy.
For the next few months, her life was consumed with follow-up appointments at MetroHealth. Orthopedics. Neurology. Endocrinology. Infectious Disease. Internal Medicine. X-rays. During her 9th grade year, Addie left school early on days she had outpatient physical therapy sessions closer to home.
In April 2012, surgeons removed the hardware they had inserted in Addie’s leg 10 months earlier to help the femur bone heal and grow on its own.
At the Cleveland Air Show during Labor Day weekend, Metro Life Flight was celebrating the operation’s 30th anniversary. Addie, who loved airplanes and dreamed of one day becoming a pilot, and her father were invited to attend.
Melissa Meyerholz, a flight nurse with Metro Life Flight, saw Addie for the first time since she went home from the hospital.
“It was great to be able to see her out of the hospital setting,” said Melissa, who was on the team that responded to the scene of Addie’s accident. Melissa had helped to assess Addie’s injuries, intubated her airway and administered blood products during the flight to MetroHealth.
By the time Addie started the 11th grade, she had fully recovered from the accident but lived with daily reminders. A body covered in scars. A left leg that hurt a little extra if she bumped it on something.
In June 2015, around the time of the anniversary of her accident, Addie sent Melissa a message. She thanked Melissa and updated her on what she had been doing since they last met.
That fall, Addie was heading to the University of North Dakota, one of the country’s top-ranked aviation programs.
“It was a pleasant surprise,” Melissa said. “We don’t get that kind of connection with our patients very often.”
Every year after that, around the anniversary date, Addie messages Melissa. Addie includes photos and details about her accomplishments from the past year – made possible because of what Metro Life Flight and the MetroHealth Trauma Team did for her in 2011.
After getting her private pilot license and becoming a multi-engine flight instructor in 2019 while in college, Addie wrote Melissa. When she graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautics with a major in commercial aviation, she wrote Melissa.
On June 8, 2024, Addie ran the 5K at the Resiliency Run. She reconnected for the first time with Melissa and some of the Metro Life Flight staff and others who were key to her recovery.
Being around hundreds of other former trauma patients, Addie said, drilled into her how big an impact MetroHealth has made on so many lives.
“It was such an empowering and multidimensional experience, to see the community and to hear the stories of other survivors,” she said.
“Melissa was the face of that for me, that’s why it means so much.”
Addie returned to the Resiliency Run on June 7, 2025. Cheering her on was her wife Bri; the two married in Key West, Florida. in January 2023.
Once again, Addie connected with Melissa.
For years, Melissa has looked forward to getting Addie’s updates.
“We put in a lot of time training to do our jobs well,” she said. “It’s humbling and gratifying to get thanks from Addie and other trauma survivors.”
Today, Addie considers herself back to 100%, but with a caveat.
“Obviously, life can never be the same,” she said. “Every doctor who has read my medical file has told me flat out that I should be dead. That in and of itself is … crazy”
It’s not unusual for Addie to spot a Metro Life Flight helicopter near where she lives.
“Every time, I stop and think about how there’s another person going through an unimaginable amount of trauma,” she said. “What the Life Flight team does is incredibly selfless.”
In February 2025, Addie started a new job. A pilot with United Airlines, she flies the Boeing 737 aircraft.
“I get to connect people all around the world,” she said. “I can do that because of what the MetroHealth team did for me.”
