Pregnant women in rural Colorado rely on helicopters, hours-long drives to access higher-level care
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LAMAR, Colo. — Seven months into her first pregnancy, Alisha Toomey was airlifted in a helicopter and transported to access higher-level care.
“They called in the chopper and they shipped me out to Colorado Springs,” said Toomey, 30.
Until her transfer, she received care at Prowers Medical Center, a local hospital in her rural Eastern Plains hometown of Lamar. Toomey was transferred because her blood pressure was too high.
Every year, more than 60 air medical transfers are made for pregnant patients in Colorado’s Eastern Plains, where helicopters regularly fly in to transport them to hospitals, according to several air transport providers serving the region, including Med Evac, HCA HealthONE AirLife, Flight for Life, and Air Evac Lifeteam.
Toomey was billed $114,601 for her helicopter transfer, but her insurance covered the cost. At Prowers Medical Center, if a nurse anticipates a patient may need air transfer and that insurance might not cover it, they recommend patients seek a medical flight policy. The facility itself does not incur the cost.
Toomey gave birth to her 6-pound, 3-ounce baby in May 2025, at 8 months pregnant, but like many women in rural areas, she faced challenges due to limited access to maternity care in her hometown.
Things were going well at the beginning of her pregnancy, Toomey said. She attended regular checkups at Prowers Medical Center.
“But then around 30 weeks, after running repeat labs on me, I had high blood pressure and I had some protein in my urine because of preeclampsia,” she said.
Preeclampsia is a condition diagnosed in pregnant women with persistent high blood pressure and excessive levels of protein in the urine, typically beginning after 20 weeks of pregnancy in those with previously normal blood pressure, according to the Mayo Clinic. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preeclampsia happens in about 2% to 8% of pregnancies. It is one of the leading causes of pregnancy-related death.
As a result of her preeclampsia diagnosis, Toomey’s pregnancy was classified as “high-risk”, something Prowers Medical Center is not equipped to manage, she said. Preeclampsia significantly increases the risk of preterm labor but the center, which delivers about a dozen babies a month, lacks a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and therefore wouldn’t be able to care for Toomey’s baby if she delivered before her due date.
Currently, Prowers County does not regularly track the proportion of pregnant people who are transferred out for higher level care, but Rocky Mountain PBS was able to compile data based on records provided by Prowers Medical Center.
From January 2025 to August 2025, an average of two women per month at Prowers Medical Center were transferred to facilities outside of their county for higher-level care. This represents 20 percent of the hospital’s total obstetrics inpatient admissions (80), according to its records. Of the maternal transfers, 25% were due to preeclampsia or possible preeclampsia.
Reasons patients might be transferred can include less than 36 weeks pregnant, high body mass index, wanting a vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC), severe fetal growth restriction, placental or umbilical cord abnormalities, cardiac issues, bleeding disorders, birth defects, etc…, according to Rita Bastian, the nursing manager at Prowers Medical Center.
After her helicopter transfer, Toomey spent a couple days at UCHealth Memorial Hospital North in Colorado Springs.
“With them shipping me back and forth, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be missing all this work and I also don’t want to drive three and a half hours to Colorado Springs twice a week,” said Toomy, who is a veterinarian.
“I asked that my care be transferred to Pueblo since obviously it was going to be like a revolving door down here where I would keep having to be sent to the Springs,” she said.
Pueblo is about a two hour drive from Lamar but Toomey figured her parents, who live there, would provide a support system. Still, the transfer to UCHealth Parkview Medical Center — the only hospital in Pueblo with an obstetrics center, according to Associates in Women’s Health Care — was a challenge.
The difficulty, Toomey said, may have been due to the closure of Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center's obstetric services, located 60 miles southeast of Pueblo in La Junta, which would have been an hour less of a commute for Toomey. The center, however, stopped accepting new patients in January 2025.
A representative from Pueblo's UCHealth Parkview Medical Center confirmed that since Arkansas Valley ended obstetric services in April due to underfunding, their birthing center has seen increased traffic.
“Pretty much, Pueblo was not taking any patients, plus when you’re that far along in your pregnancy, it’s rare that anyone takes new patients either,” Toomey said. “Thankfully, because I was already in the UChealth system, a nurse advocate from the Associates of Women’s Health was able to get me in.”
For the next month and a half, Toomey drove to Pueblo twice a week until she was induced around 36 weeks into her pregnancy at Pueblo's UC Parkview Medical Center.
“The hardest part was timing pee breaks… having to miss work twice a week, getting back in town later than I’d like, plus you’re not usually sleeping that great at that stage,” she said. “At one point I was crying. I was annoyed with everything, but the nurses were super great.”
Toomey isn't alone in this predicament. Another woman in Lamar, currently 29 weeks pregnant, has to make bimonthly trips to Colorado Springs just for ultrasounds.
She shared she wants to remain anonymous as she is due in seven weeks and does not want her testimony to impact her delivery.
“My husband has to take time off just to take me, so we lose income just to go that far. We’re already struggling in the economy that it is. To take me up there for a two minute appointment, it’s rough,” she said.
The reason Prowers Medical Center transferred her care to the Springs is because she will be a month over 35 when she has her baby.
“They consider that advanced maternal age,” she said.
As for Toomey, she says she is grateful to have her parents — her support system — living in Pueblo.
“I can certainly see where it would be hard, scary and difficult for someone that doesn’t have as strong of a support system,” she said. “I can definitely see all of that being a challenge.”
Toomey’s son, Evan, is four months old and hitting all his milestones.
“You wouldn’t know any better that anything happened. He’s been through a lot, but he’s doing great,” Toomey said.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.