Nursing & Allied Health asks that you join them in remembering Ryan Watson, a Western Nevada college teaching assistant and Truckee Meadows Community College student who lost his life in the line of duty.

As you may have read or heard in the news on Friday, Feb. 24, at 9:45 p.m. near Stagecoach, Nev., a fixed-wing aircraft crashed with crew, patients, a flight nurse and Emergency Medical Services personnel on board. It has since been confirmed that no passengers survived.

A paramedic on board the plane has been identified as Ryan Watson, who assisted with Western Nevada College lab instruction, helped with paramedic internships and served as a co instructor for Emergency Medical Services courses from Summer 2021 to Spring 2022.

To honor the victims, Gov. Joe Lombardo issued an executive order that Nevada and U.S. flags at the Nevada Capitol and at state public buildings and grounds be flown at half-staff until the last memorial service for the first responders concluded.

In 2018, Watson took paramedicine courses at Truckee Meadows Community College from current Western EMS and Paramedic Program Coordinator Terry Mendez, developing an immediate friendship.

“Ryan has always been an intelligent, passionate and caring person who gave his best to everyone he encountered,” Mendez said. “He was so excited when he began the position as a flight medic at Care Flight and continued these attributes. He was an amazing person, excellent practitioner and a new father.”

His selflessness in caring for others extended beyond his profession. According to Mendez, Ryan assisted with the Nevada Building Hope Foundation providing health care in a remote Amazon rainforest in Peru.

“Ryan was a giving person to anyone who needed help. He worked with children in their schools and developed a women’s nutritional program for some of the villages,” Mendez said. “Community members from Ayacucho, San Juan de Yanayacu and Junin villages are planning celebrations of Ryan in March.”

In a tribute to Ryan and to help fundraise for his family (which includes an infant son), this was written about him on a GoFundMe page.

“Ryan loved being a flight medic and brought a positive attitude to every call and patient interaction he had. Ryan had an infectious personality; he was hilarious, ambitious, and free-spirited. He loved traveling the world and going on extreme adventures outside of work with his beautiful wife Kailey, Family, and Friends.”

So far, nearly $280,000 of a $500,000 goal has been raised for Ryan’s family.