The Finish Line Connection: A CRNA’s Full Circle Moment

As Karen Eckerman, APRN, CRNA, approached the finish line of the American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race—a 50-kilometer feat through the snow-laden trails of Wisconsin—she was tired, exhilarated, and completely unaware of what was about to unfold. Then, she heard it: a name echoing over the loudspeakers that rang familiar, just moments before her own. It was Matt Curtin, a liver transplant patient she had cared for just a year earlier.

Eckerman had met Curtin in 2024 under very different circumstances. As a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), also known as a nurse anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist, she was a member of his liver transplant team at Mayo Clinic. She had spent a quiet but meaningful pre-op morning with him, prepping him for surgery and soothing his nerves by talking about the things that brought him joy. They instantly bonded over their shared love of cross-country skiing and how they both take on the Birkebeiner every year. Curtin mentioned that, despite his upcoming transplant, he looked forward to being on the trail again.

That pre-surgery conversation had been brief, but memorable. “I told him, ‘I’ll see you in Hayward in 2025!’” At the time, it was just a casual, lighthearted promise.

And yet, there he was. Just one stride in front of her.

When she spotted him at the finish line, she was overcome. “It was amazing,” she recalled. “I shouted his name, and he turned around, surprised, and I said, ‘I’m Karen Eckerman. I was part of your transplant team.’”

For Eckerman, this wasn’t just a feel-good coincidence. It was a powerful reminder of the rare, profound impact a CRNA can have on a patient’s life, even when their time together is brief. It was a moment so perfectly timed and so full of meaning it felt, in her words, “like a God moment.”

This moment didn’t come from nowhere—it was decades in the making.

Eckerman’s journey to becoming a CRNA was first inspired by family, then shaped through years of experience as a nurse in orthopedics, pediatrics, and critical care. She was drawn to the physiological side of patient care, fascinated by how medications affected the body in real time. Nurse anesthesiology became the perfect fit: precise, science-driven, and deeply human.

For the last 18 years, Eckerman has honed her skills in a range of settings—from operating rooms to ambulatory surgery centers, and even in pediatric units assisting with proton therapy treatments. Despite the different technical demands of each setting, she remains grounded in one constant: Be fully present and fully compassionate.

“I love the induction part of anesthesia,” she says. “It’s the moment when you connect. I always ask patients what brings them joy, and then I try to weave that into a little story as they go off to sleep.” Her storytelling, whether it’s about gardening one day or hiking forest trails the next, has carried all her patients peacefully into surgery.

“I really believe in caring for the whole patient,” she adds. “Not just setting the stage for the surgeon, but making sure the patient is warm enough, comfortable, and at peace. Even if the moment is fleeting, I want to make it meaningful.”

That sense of meaning is reflected in her skiing, too. She first took up the sport with her kids and was encouraged by a close friend and CRNA colleague, Steve Pieper, to sign up for the Birkebeiner. When Steve tragically passed away prior to her first race, she skied it in his honor and has done so every year since. Along the way, she met Coach Carl, a retired teacher and lifelong Birkebeiner skier who became a mentor and friend to Eckerman and gave her one more reason to keep showing up—not just for herself, but for the people she’s met along the way. To Eckerman, it’s a testament that we are all more connected than we realize.

“Every year, something meaningful comes out of the race,” she says. “This year, it was meeting Matt. It reminds me that the little things we say and do, like a short chat before a procedure, can ripple out so much further than we know.”

Eckerman balances her career with motherhood and skiing. Her minivan always has her gear stashed in the back, ready for a quick lap if there’s even a sliver of time between work and school pickup. “It’s how I stay grounded. When I’ve had that time for myself, I’m more refreshed, more balanced. I show up better—for my patients, my family, and my team.”

As she reminisces about everything that had brought her to that finish line with Curtin, Eckerman is reminded that the work CRNAs do is deeply personal and wholly human.

“It reignited something in me,” Eckerman says. “You just never know what kind of impact you’re having. Even a small connection can mean something huge down the road.”

She doesn’t know if she’ll see Matt again in the next race, and she doesn’t plan on seeking him out. “If I do, I’ll be glad. But if not, that moment we shared is enough.”

In a world that often moves too fast to make lasting connections, Karen Eckerman finds them—in pre-op small talk, in snowy finish lines, and in the lives of patients who, by chance or by fate, ski right back into her life.