FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years

MEMBERS By Ryan Beckers FIREFIGHTER/PARAMEDIC DAVID COLOMBEL Injury Update from San Bernardino Station 226 suffered significant burns, including some second and third degree, to his shoulder, back and hands. The injuries occurred during interior attack operations at a structure fire in San Bernardino on December 14. Dave was brought to ARMC for treatment after the fire, and has had several follow-up doctor’s visits. While he has been placed off-duty until later in Febru- ary, his prognosis is for a full recovery, and he has avoided any skin grafts or surgery. Injury Update Dave is anxious to get back to work, saying he misses hanging with his crew, and especially those killer days on the squad. In the mean- time, as he recovers he has taken on the Local 935 steward role for Stations 226 and 228. If you have his number, he welcomes calls or texts from anyone who wants to check in. ENGINEER ANDREW WEISS LOVE 4 MEMBERS MIKAH In September, when we found out about Mikah Carney’s diagnosis of B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, we were told that the treatment would last 3-1/2 years. We had no idea what this journey would look like. Would he need to be the hospital for three years? Would he require a bone marrow transfusion? How often would he need blood or platelet transfusions? All of these questions couldn’t be answered by his doctors. We were told that we needed to take it day by day. The idea of taking it day by day seemed so daunting. By Mike Westfall On December 22, 2018, numerous units from Divi- sion 2 with assistance from Division 1 responded to a second alarm residential structure fire with reported victims trapped. First arriving units found heavy fire and smoke showing from a single story residence. The crews initiated an aggressive fire attack with their pri- ority being victim rescue. Fire crews found two victims located inside the structure and proceeded to remove the victims to the outside, where ALS care was initi- ated. One victim was pronounced dead at the scene, where fire crews performed CPR on the second victim and transported him to the hospital. After successful rescue of the victims, crews contin- ued their aggressive fire attack to completely extin- guish the fire. During the firefighting operations, a car port attached to the involved structure collapsed and struck three firefighters operating at the scene. Cap- tain Bryan James and Engineer Andrew Weiss were assigned as Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC) and were struck by the roof collapse. Firefighter Jason Hudson was assigned to fire attack and was standing near the RIC team when he was also struck by the roof col- lapse. A firefighter mayday was immediately transmit- ted, and crews immediately initiated firefighter rescue and removed all three members from the collapse. Captain Bryan James was struck in the head but was able to get out of the collapse before being trapped underneath it. Bryan experienced neck pain on scene and was treated by County Fire paramedics. Bryan was transported via AMR to Loma Linda University Medical Center and was evaluated by doctors for his neck pain. All tests results were negative for serious injury and Bryan was released three hours after his arrival and was back to work the following day. He ex- perienced soreness in his neck for several days after the incident however the pain subsided, and he is now fully recovered. Firefighter Jason Hudson was struck in the head by the collapsing roof and then fell to the ground un- der the fallen debris. Jason was quickly removed from the collapse by the other firefighters and was then assessed by County Fire paramedics on scene. Jason was showing signs of confusion on scene and had complaints of neck and back pain. He was transport- ed via AMR to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center 18 FIREWIRE • Five Year Anniversary for evaluation and treatment of his injuries. He was released that night. Jason received a concussion from the strike to his head and is still experiencing short term memory loss of the two weeks prior to the in- cident. Test results show herniated disks of C5 and C6 in his cervical spine. He is still waiting for the MRI results to rule out herniation of his thoracic and lum- bar spine. The next appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon will determine if there is a need for surgery to repair the herniations of his spine. If it is determined that surgery is not needed, Jason will begin physical therapy in hopes of relieving the pain caused by the herniated disks. Currently Jason is off work on occupational injury pending further test results. Engineer Andrew Weiss received the most severe injuries of the three mem- bers involved in the incident. Andrew was standing close to an entrance to the residence, directly under the location that the car port detached from the structure. The roof collapsed directly onto Andrews head and upper body, driving him down to the ground. The weight and force of the collapse forced all the energy into Andrews left leg, causing multiple fractures to the tibia and fibula. Andrew was quickly pulled to safety by his brothers and immediate paramedic care was ren- dered. Andrew was transported via AMR with County Fire Paramedics to Loma Linda University Medical Center. The severity of his injuries required immediate orthopedic surgery to repair the fractures. The surgery was extensive, requiring numerous hours to complete. Andrew remained in the hospital for two more days post-surgery for evaluation of possible complications such as compartment syndrome. Days after the sur- gery it was discovered that Andrew also suffered a fractured rib. While painful and often a burden, the fracture should heal on its own. Throughout his hospi- tal stay, Andrew was surrounded by his family, friends and department personnel. Andrew was finally re- leased from the hospital the morning of Christmas Eve. The department went out of its way to ensure Andrew made it home comfortably to be with his family for the holidays. To ensure the transport home was as quick and painless as possible, County Fire H325 transport- ed Andrew and his wife Jessica by air to their home in Santa Clarita. The prognosis for Andrew to make a full recovery is good; however, he has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Andrew was instructed by the surgeons not to put any weight on his injured leg for eight weeks. Once he is able to put weight on the affected leg he can begin the process of rehabilitating himself back to normal function. A physical thera- pist assists Andrew twice a week with home therapy sessions to keep the leg functioning and to prevent atrophy. The follow-up appointment with Andrew’s surgeon had promising results that ev- erything was progressing as planned. As expected from Andrew, he can’t pass up a gym session. He still makes his gains utilizing dumbbells while on his couch, as well as ensuring he gets his one hundred daily push ups in. An- drew is giving maximum effort to make it back to work as soon as possible and says he really misses the job and all his brothers and sisters. Mikah is four months into his healing process; in some ways it feels like a lifetime, and in other ways it feels like it has only been days since Mikah was diagnosed. We are learning that we do, in fact, have to take this healing process day by day. Every time we go in for an appointment at the Children’s Hospital clinic at Loma Linda University we must wait for Mikah’s labs to see if his counts are where they need to be in order for him to receive that day’s chemo/treatment. So far Mikah has been able to receive every treatment as scheduled. Mikah continues to amaze us with his positive attitude and warrior spirit at home. He still is not a fan of his visits to the clinic, but we can’t blame him. He is always very serious, and it is hard for the nurses and staff to get a smile out of him. I always tell them I wish they could see him at home with his siblings because he is a joyous kid who never really ever complains about anything. His understanding of what is going on seems well beyond his 5-year-old mind. Mikah begins a 60-Day “Delayed Intensification” phase on January 15th. He will basically begin the same treatment he received his first month of treatment; steroids and chemo in his port-a-cath and spine. At the end of the first month, we will also have to give him chemo at home. We have been warned that in this phase we may come across some big bumps in the road. Fevers and hospital stays are quite common during this phase. Any fever over 100.4 usually requires that he be admitted into the hospital. Basically his immune system is zero with the chemo/ meds he is given during this phase. We have to be careful with germs and sickness. Of course, winter is a tough time to avoid coming in contact with others who are sick. We try to get out as often as we can safely do so, but we are going to have to bunker down as much as possible during the next two months. Thank you for your prayers and for those of you who continue to check on us. Thank you for those of you who have covered shifts for Michael so that we could be together as a family during these first difficult months of treatment. We also want to thank Local 935, Fontana Police Association, and Last Name Brewing in Upland for their Mugs-4-Mikah event in December. It was such a huge blessing to be able to hug and talk with many of you. Many thanks also to Augie’s Coffee, Monrovia Firefighters’ Association, Rancho Cucamonga Professional Firefighters’ Association, Rialto Professional Firefighters’ Association, Chino Valley Professional Firefighters’ Association, Pasadena Fire Department Crew 31-B, Inland Empire Police Canine Association (IEPCA), Los Angeles Police Department, Hurt Ink, Megan’s Wings, Steven’s Hope and many others for reaching out to Mikah with encouragement and/or support. We continue to be amazed at the love Mikah and our family is receiving. We know it is a long road but each of you who have reached out to us are making it a little easier. Love, The Carney Family Michael, Sarah, Mattias, Markus, Mikah and Mikaela Winter 2019 • FIREWIRE 19

FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years | Page 18