LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Nov. 4, 2025, started like a normal day for Kensey Jochim.
The Galen College of Nursing student had gone to class that morning and was helping set up for a graduation ceremony that evening when her phone buzzed.
UofL Hospital was on a code yellow, meaning the hospital's disaster plan had been activated. That disaster was Louisville's deadly UPS cargo plane crash, which killed 15 people and sent several victims to the hospital's burn unit.
At the time, Jochim worked as a patient care assistant at UofL Hospital. She got a text from her charge nurse calling staff in and dropped everything to head to the unit, where hospital workers were caring for victims.
"You open the doors to the 6th floor where the burn unit is and it's straight chaos — controlled chaos though," Jochim said.
Inside, she ran labs, grabbed blood and gathered supplies as nurses and doctors treated patients with severe burns.
"It was like an orchestra in a sense," Jochim said.
Severe burns and injuries she had only studied in class were suddenly right in front of her.
"Afterwards you get a little choked up because you're like 'my goodness, what did I just see?'" Jochim said.
Her work earned her a BEE Award, which honors support staff who go above and beyond. The team of nurses Jochim worked alongside in the burn unit received a DAISY Team Award.
But Jochim said what carried her after that day was the people around her — especially a Galen security guard named Albert, who checked on her every day after the crash.
Nursing is a second career for Jochim. She left an office job craving something more.
"To be able to walk with them in that moment, it's a blessing, it truly is," she said.
Jochim accepted a job after graduation as an ICU nurse at UofL Health.
"This incident really put into perspective live life to the fullest because tomorrow is not always promised, the next five minutes are not always promised," she said. "People were just at work."
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