FIREWIRE Magazine Winter 2019: Celebrating 5 Years | Page 18
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
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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
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