According to Kentucky State Police, a Crittenden County ambulance ran off of the eastbound corridor of the Western Kentucky Parkway about 6:40 a.m., Tuesday. The ambulance traveled down an embankment and struck a tree.

Denise Tinsley, 35, was pronounced dead at the scene by an Ohio County Coroner. Her son, Caleb, 4, and husband, Pat, were treated and released at Ohio County Hospital in Hartford.

The family was being transported by Crittenden EMS to Louisville's Kosair Children's Hospital where Caleb, 4, was to have a body cast removed.

EMT Margretta Travis, 47, of Marion, was flown via LifeFlight to University of Louisville Hospital from the scene of the accident. Crittenden Emergency Management Director Greg Rushing (who went to the scene of the accident Tuesday) says Travis is in critical condition, suffering from head, back and internal injuries.

Rushing said Denise Tinsley, Travis and Caleb Tinsley were in the rear of the ambulance. Pat Tinsley was riding in the front passenger seat.

According to reports, Crittenden EMS employee Sherry Frazer, the driver of the 1995 Ford mini-modular ambulance, lost control of the vehicle about a mile west of the Beaver Dam Service Center. Frazer was treated and released from Ohio County Hospital. Family members say Frazer told them the ambulance hit a large pothole on the parkway and shortly thereafter, she lost control of the steering. Officially, however, state police have not disclosed the exact cause of the accident.

Jere McCuiston, Emergency Management Director for Area 2 in Kentucky, and Rushing traveled to Ohio County upon learning of the accident. The two secured ambulance equipment and prepared it to be transported back to Crittenden Hospital.

Adding to the tragedy of Tuesday's wreck, a Missouri man was also killed in a two-vehicle collision that occurred in a log-jam of traffic backed up during reconstruction of the initial accident. As state police continued their investigation of the ambulance fatality on the parkway, traffic slowed and became congested in the eastbound lanes. Francis X. Schmacher, 61, of Sikeston, Mo., died when he apparently failed to notice the traffic jam in time and struck the rear of a Ford Explorer occupied by a Louisiana family.

The Tinsleys, whose son has suffered from various complications stemming from his premature birth in 1996, routinely traveled to Louisville for checkups. The Press published an article outlining the family's circumstance last August.

It was not uncommon for the Tinsleys to travel via Crittenden ambulance to and from Louisville for doctor visits. Caleb is on a ventilator and uses heart and oxygen saturation monitors 24 hours a day. Traveling by ambulance was necessary although not an emergency transport.

On Tuesday, the family was traveling to Louisville so doctors could remove a body cast Caleb had been wearing since his leg was broken during a physical therapy session in late April. According to police records, the Tinsleys left their home in the ambulance just before 5 a.m., Tuesday with the EMTs.

Friends of the Tinsleys say they traveled by Crittenden ambulance to both Louisville and Paducah last week for Caleb's doctors appointments. Since he has been in the full body cast, he could only travel lying on his back. Therefore, the ambulance was the best mode of transportation.

Those who knew Denise Tinsley called her a wonderful mother with a huge heart who always had a smile on her face and never said a bad word about anybody.

"She was always helping out the other person, and you know what a burden she had herself taking care of Caleb," said Nancy Landreth, who attended church at Marion General Baptist Church with the Tinsleys.

"She was so loving and was so good to Caleb," Landreth recalls. "They took him places, places you wouldn't take your own. They brought him to church every Sunday unless he was running a temperature or it was real rainy or cold.

"If he couldn't come, (Pat or Denise) would come Sunday morning and the other one would come Sunday night.

In the story published in The Crittenden Press last summer, Denise Tinsley discussed her faith and hope that Caleb would live a long life and make progressive improvements in his health.

"We're really trying to stay hopeful, keeping our faith and remaining optimistic, but it does get discouraging," Denise Tinsley said last August. "After every birthday I think he'll be off the ventilator by the next birthday."

A licensed nurse, it was Denise Tinsley's goal to take care of Caleb on her own, with assistance from Crittenden Home Health nurses and family members. She and a friend were writing a book, "All the King's Horses and All the King's Men... A Guide to Caring for Chronically-Ill Child," to provide guidance to family and friends of people in similar situations.