By the Rev. Barbara Mraz
The Crash
It was her first solo flight as a 29-year-old student pilot, a prerequisite for getting her license. As she flew the small plane over downtown St Paul, the plane’s engine sputtered and Sheryl Ramstad guided the crippled craft to the ground, being able to steer away from densely populated neighborhoods and freeways. She thought she was going to die but did not want to take others with her. It was 4:00 on a 4th of July weekend; the river was full of boats and the freeway was full of cars. She finally spotted an empty schoolyard that connected to an alley. Coming within ten feet of a woman sunbathing in her back yard, the plane bumped to a hard landing and became engulfed in flames from fuel in the tank, trapping Sheryl inside. “It was an inferno,” she says.
She finally burst through a door, crawled out and, badly burned, collapsed at the front of St Vincent’s Catholic Church. The priest came out and gave her last rites.
She was taken to the hospital with burns on 37 percent of her body. She spent seven weeks in the hospital, underwent multiple surgeries and for two years had to return to the hospital every day for rehabilitative therapy.
Sheryl was a wife, a lawyer, a federal prosecutor, and thought she was nearing the peak of her career. Her doctor considered amputating her right hand which was burned down to the bone but was able to graft skin on to it. Miraculously, it healed.
Reflecting on this experience some thirty years later, she said what saved her life was the split-second decision not to pull back on the controls of the plane—which would have been the natural instinct, to try to get it airborne again. Instead, she set the gears in landing mode, tried to steer the nose of the plane, and was able to get it down.
She has not pulled back on anything since.
Hospital
Not only did she have extensive burns, Sheryl gained sixty pounds in the first three days in the hospital. Doctors discovered she had a burst intestine, and a very risky surgery followed where she was given a ten percent chance of survival.
From her high-powered job as a lawyer, Sheryl was now dependent on others for the most basic care. She says she was lucky, not only because she eventually did heal, but because of the support she received from her family, friends and hospital staff. The nurses knew she had begun training for a marathon and told her to focus on that goal. Eventually, she ran seven of them. She also names a spiritual element in this experience: “God was my co-pilot.”
Career
Sheryl’s resume is impressive: Assistant Hennepin County Public Defender; Assistant U.S. Attorney; Hennepin County Judge; Minnesota Commissioner for the Department of Corrections in the administration of Governor Jesse Ventura; partner at Rider Bennett Law firm, and now Chief External Relations Officer at Hennepin County Medical Center. She is also the sister of long-time Congressman Jim Ramstad.
However, it is her experience aside from these roles that is equally impressive.
Some thirty years after her accident, Sheryl decided it was a time for a career change. So while working full-time as a judge she began taking prerequisite science courses (one at a time) so she could apply for the University of Minnesota Master in Nursing program. Her experience as a burn patient was still very much on her mind and she wanted to give back, to care for others who had undergone experiences similar to her own.
Eventually she was able to work as a nurse at the same burn center where she had been a patient thirty years earlier, at Regions Hospital. She says, “The most satisfying thing has been caring for burn patients who had burns covering up to 65% of their body, as well as patients whose limbs had been amputated as a result of the burns they had suffered. I understood what the patients and their families were going through on the long road to recovery. I tried to encourage them and provide care for them as had been done for me. Another reward was working side by side with five of the professionals – a surgeon, three nurses and a physical therapist – who had previously cared for me as a patient.”
Eventually, she received her Doctorate in Nursing Practice, Heath Innovation and Leadership from the University and went on to serve on numerous boards and in a variety of programs for burn victims and others who needed help. She is part of the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, International, and is president of the University of Minnesota Nursing Alumni Board.
Faith
Sheryl’s life has been about far more than her career. She and her first husband adopted three children, now grown. That marriage ended in divorce but she notes that “I’m in a much better place now.” Twelve years ago at St. Mark’s Cathedral she married Lee Larson, an executive with Benedictine Health, an organization that is an innovator in many areas of health care. They have a beautiful home and enjoy gardening, travel, biking, plays and movies. There are grandchildren out of town to visit. Now residents of St Paul, they joined St. John’s two years ago.
When she was Commissioner of Corrections, Sheryl came to admire the Prison Fellowship program for giving hope to the most hardened and hopeless offenders. In a speech she said this: “Many become suspicious of those who come to Jesus while they’re behind bars. Yet, as someone once said, ‘groanings that cannot be articulated are often prayers that cannot be refused.’ It’s Prison Fellowship’s vision that people who are impacted by crime can experience the redemptive grace and peace of Christianity. Prison Fellowship extends a hand of friendship that can serve as a buffer against the many rejections that an ex-offender faces.” As a wounded healer herself, she has offered the hand of friendship and assistance to many people in distress. She observes that everybody has “stuff;” that is, no one seems to get through life pain-free.
I’ve witnessed Sheryl in action: she brought a bouquet of flowers to the 8th floor of the hospital so they would be in my room an hour after my knee surgery; there were delicious meals at the door as soon as I got home; the perfect book offered as a gift; and a thoughtful visit from Sheryl and Lee coming home from the State Fair bringing mini-donuts and Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies. She is the real deal and I am honored to call this outstanding woman my friend. All of us are lucky that Sheryl and Lee have made St. John’s their home.
Originally published in the November-December 2018 Evangelist.
