Cincinnati - Members of University Hospital Air Care & Mobile Care, along with members of the Fairfield Fire Department EMS, were in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday where they received the Star of Life Award. Together, they were being honored for their heroic efforts to save a young man, Josh Dykstra, 23, after a motorcycle accident the night of June 9th, 2007.

Those reuniting with Josh as they received the award were Dr. Ben Bassin, Flight Nurse Casi Stewart, Communication Specialist Val Deerwester and pilot Dan Spencer from University Hospital Air Care & Mobile Care. For Fairfield Fire Department EMS, honorees included Captain Jim Howell, Lieutenant Randy McCreadie, Richard Hall, Tim Jung and Mike Smith.This was Air Care & Mobile Care's first recognition with this prestigious award.

The EMS "Star of Life" Awards are designed to:

• Honor exceptional EMS personnel from each of Ohio's ten EMS Regions.
• Recognize Ohio's emergency medical services system and organizations.
• Reunite the EMS provider with the person they treated and present the actual patient scenario.

University Hospital, Cincinnati is part of the Health Alliance, an integrated health care delivery system of physicians and hospitals serving Greater Cincinnati. University Hospital provides primary care and specialized inpatient and outpatient services to more than 500,000 patients per year. It is home to the area's only adult Level I Trauma Center, accredited helicopter and ground ambulance service, and multi-solid organ transplant center and is consistently ranked in U.S. News & World Report's annual guide to America's Best Hospitals. To view other Health Alliance news releases, go to www.healthalliance.com/pressroom.