TREETOP RESCUE
RESCUE/EMS
The first call to the fire department reported only a man stuck in a tree but a falling limb had partially severed his arm and leg.
John Fogarty, 21, climbed a tree last July 26 to cut down a branch blocking his employer’s view of nearby Lunken Airport in Cincinnati. The tree grew on a steep and jungle-like hillside above Columbia Parkway and below Catawba Valley Lane. Sitting in the fork, Fogarty sawed through the limb. As it fell, vines caught it and carried it back against Fogarty, partially severing his left arm and leg.
Thus began a 2 ½ -hour rescue involving fire department personnel, two rescue units, a heavy rescue squad, two engine companies, a truck company, a helicopter, a physician and a tree surgeon.
At 12:33 p.m., the fire communications division received a telephone call reporting a man stuck in a tree at 1029 Catawba Valley Lane. Truck 3 and Rescue 46 were dispatched from the Lunken Airport station.
In a seemingly unrelated alarm four minutes later, the airport station’s Engine 18 and Rescue 38, housed across town, were dispatched to the Taft Center at Columbia Parkway and Tusculum Ave., where a security guard – hearing a sharp crack from the woods followed by screams — assumed someone had been shot.
After a few minutes of confused radio transmission, it fjecame apparent that both companies were responding to the same incident Truck 3 entered the woods from the top of the hill and Engine 18 entered from the bottom, guided only by the screams of the victim.
Converging in the woods. Captain Jake Hauk of Truck 3 and Lieutenant Terry Devine of Engine 18 made a quick size-up of the extent of tlte injuries and equipment, apparatus and manpower needed for a rescue. Their view of the victim was limited by the dense foliage in the area, but they could see that he was pinned approximately 35 feet up in the fork of a tree.
The closest branch was 8 feet below.
An aluminum stepladder rested on the lower branch. The base of the cut limb was hanging precariously balanced 6 feet aboveground with a branch pressing against the victim’s left arm and leg. A ladder was needed to achieve a more accurate assessment, but the angle of slope on the hillside did not lend itself to easy ladder placement. Even walking was difficult, and standing could only be accomplished by bracing against a root or small tree.
—photos by Cary Auffan
Truck 3 was parked on the nearest road 125 yards uphill, rendering the aerial ladder useless for rescue purposes. With no other alternative, fire fighters raised and tied off the 22-foot ladder from Truck 3 that was brought down on arrival along with a hose hoist, pull-up rope and circular saw. This enabled Paramedics Bill Wauligman and Bill Cunningham of Rescue 46 to climb up and check the victim, who was conscious and coherent but in extreme pain.
Fogarty’s arm and leg appeared almost totally severed, with the branch against his upper thigh acting as a tourniquet. He was in a semi-reclining position with his head and chest below the injured appendages. This kept the blood flowing away from the injured areas and pooled in his upper body cavities, preventing shock and minimizing bleeding. However, there was no way of resuscitating him should cardiac or respiratory arrest occur. They started an IV of Ringer’s Lactate. Wauligman went up the hill to telephone for Captain Roger Crauder, commander of the paramedics.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Devine contacted the engineer on Engine 18 via hand-held radio to request District Chief Harry Kroeger, Engine 23 (for manpower) and Squad 52, the heavy rescue unit. Having gone back up the hill for additional equipment Hauk used the truck’s radio to advise fire communications of the situation and recommend getting a helicopter for possible rescue assistance. Fire Chief Norman Wells, monitoring the radio transmission from his downtown office, called WCPO-TV for use of their news helicopter. At this point no one knew that the victim was WCPO newscaster Jack Fogarty’s son. Wells then proceeded to the scene and set up a command post at the top of the hill.
When Engine 23 arrived, the crew assisted the Truck 3 crew in conveying the 35-foot (and over 300 pounds) wooden extension ladder to the tree and getting it raised. This required six men, two on each pole and two for additional support to hold the ladder while Crauder tied it off the top using bridging ropes. From his vantage point above the victim, he could see that quick rescue was possible by means of a double amputation if Fogarty’s condition deterioriated.
Crauder called down to Kroeger that they needed a doctor and morphine. Crauder then helped paramedics improvise a crotch tie and secure it on an overhead branch for body support. Minutes later, Captain Ben Klaene of Squad 52 arrived and added a life belt around the victim’s chest, incorporating two ropes held by fire fighters on the ground.
The helicopter requested earlier hovered overhead. But this macJe voice communication between the paramedics in the tree and fire fighters on the ground impossible. Since it could not effectively be used to lift the branch off the victim due to its small size and the terrain, the pilot landed on a nearby lawn. There was still the possibility of using it to fly Fogarty to General Hospital. But Dr. Storrs, sent from the hospital at Wells’ request, decided later that transporting by ambulance was preferable because of space limitations in the helicopter.
With Fogarty stabilized, the officers turned their attention to the problem of removing the limb. At 16 inches in diameter, it weighed close to a ton. Their main concern was cutting it down through the vines without having it fail, injuring fire fighters on the ground and possibly killing Fogarty. As they decided to begin cutting, lack Butcher, a professional tree surgeon, appeared. His appearance resulted from his father listening to the scanner-activity on a radio scanner. Recognizing the need for someone skilled, the father went to where his son was working and brought him to the scene.
Crauder said of his arrival: “It was like God sent this Butcher. He came walking down the hill with his rope and saddle over his arm and said he was a professional tree surgeon, asking if we could use some help. I told him to go take a look.”
After receiving permission from the officers, he scaled the tree, tying his support rope off above the limb, and began removing vines and smaller branches. Butcher indicated that he could do the job. Paramedics then administered morphine to Fogarty and climbed out of the tree.
As Butcher worked, fire fighters continued their efforts, hampered by the extreme heat and humidity. They dug a hole under one pole of the extension ladder to level it. Another group using the circular saw cleared a path to the ambulance and strung a polypropylene rope both to mark the way and to act as a handrail. Several men made trips up the hill for additional medical supplies and equipment.
When the final logs dropped, paramedics climbed up to free the victim. The fire fighters pulled the ropes attached to the lifebelt. This lifted him out of the fork so that the paramedics could move him around the tree and carry him down the ladder Part way down, he was placed in a Stokes basket where MAST trousers were applied. Fire fighters rushed him to the ambulance. Arriving at General Hospital, he was taken to surgery where doctors amputated his left arm and leg.
Rescues of this sort are not commonplace. Longtime veterans of Cincinnati’s fire department remarked that they had never seen such a complicated rescue.
What skills or equipment did Cincinnati fire fighters lack? A review of the entire rescue revealed little that could have been done differently. Having Jack Butcher volunteer his services saved valuable time and possibly prevented further injuries. But fire fighters and paramedics combined teamwork and their professional knowledge to overcome the obstacles …. and save a young man’s life.
