Sky's The Limit For Flight Nurse Thanks to Weight Loss Surgery

DENVER (CBS4)- A registered nurse, RN, at Denver Health always wanted to take to the skies. However, becoming a flight nurse seemed out of reach because of her weight.

All that changed after nurse Meghan Malecki had successful bariatric surgery.

"Flying, man, it's so cool," said Meghan.

For two years now, she has been living her dream of working with AirLife Denver, delivering critical care on board an aircraft.

"The space is pretty cramped," she said squeezing into the seat of an AirLife helicopter.

That's no problem, now, for Meghan. However, space and weight limits were what once kept the RN grounded.

"I was overweight as a kid, overweight as a young adult and kind of shelved my dream to be a flight nurse," she explained.

In 2016, Meghan weighed 280 pounds. Short of breath on a family hike, she said she had finally had enough.

"Everybody was focused on me, asking if I was okay and I was feeling ashamed and kind of disgusted with myself and decided to make a change," Meghan said.

Meghan was working as a nurse at Denver Health. She consulted the Denver Health Bariatric Surgery Center. In 2017, she had vertical sleeve gastrectomy, surgery removing a large portion of her stomach and creating a small pouch.

"Which allowed me to lose about 100 pounds and kicked me into being able to fly," she said.

She was able to fly and flourish. Meghan is now a runner. She has completed two half-marathons and other races. She focuses on fitness.

She is thrilled professionally and personally.

"Carrying laundry up the stairs without being short of breath, running with my kids, hiking, fishing," she said, "It's huge."

The sky's the limit with Meghan's new way of living.