Christi Carson of Jamestown fits both categories — just not at the same time.

The Warren Area High School graduate is a nurse at UPMC Chautauqua. During the year-long process from finding out she had a rare heart condition and would need a transplant to receiving a new heart last month, Carson flew on Stat MedEvac helicopters twice.

A nurse on emergency helicopter flights sounded like a flight nurse to her step-father, Mark Woody.

He reached out to Stat MedEvac.

Photo submitted to Times Observer Christi Carson, a registered nurse at UPMC Chautauqua, who flew twice on Stat MedEvac helicopters during the last year, has been named an honorary Stat MedEvac flight nurse.

“My daughter’s an RN at a UPMC emergency room and she was flown twice,” he explained. “Does that make not make her a flight nurse?”

“They thought that was a great idea,” Woody said.

“It’s not something we do routinely, but we have presented similar certificates in the past,” Stat MedEvac Director of Business Relations and Development Dan Nakles said. “It is done for recognition and acknowledgment of special life events.”

“This case was unique,” Nakles said. “This award was a perfect fit.”

On Wednesday, March 29, Carson was named an honorary flight nurse by Stat MedEvac.

Nakles visited Carson at UPMC Presbyterian and made the presentation there.

“They presented her with a beautiful plaque and a flight patch,” Woody said.

“It was very informal but a surprise,” Nakles said.

“It teared her up a little bit,” Woody said.

Carson was moved from UPMC Presbyterian to UPMC Motefiore for rehabilitation last week. “They’ll be there for the near future,” Woody said. “They still have to do hear biopsies to make sure she’s not rejecting it.”

“She’s still not able to take a deep breath,” he said. “She’ll be on oxygen for the near future.”

But, Carson has a new heart, is recovering, and her twins will celebrate their first birthdays this month.

And, she is an honorary Stat Medevac flight nurse.