Fire chief recounting over 30 years fighting fires and conducting search and rescues in Alaska

Thursday, September 14, 2006

from "Mean-World Syndrome"
--Her boyfriend, Paul Malek, was an easy-going sort, but when Don forced him off the road, leapt from his car and ran toward him, Paul pulled a .22 revolver and shot. At the same moment, Don spun around to escape, but was struck in his right “love handle”. He ran back to his car and drove himself to the hospital.
--Paul drove to the police station and told them he just shot Don. Incidentally, because of that shooting, Paul – who was the singer in our band – would never sing the song “Stagger Lee” because it was a song about Stagger Lee shooting a guy over a crap game, and Paul didn’t want to appear cavalier about shooting someone.
--Anyway, after the E.R. doc plugged the hole in Don, we were to transport him in the ambulance to the airport for a medevac flight to Anchorage
. EMT Mike Gundlach, driver Joe Levey, and I lifted Don’s rotund carcass into the ambulance and took off. Don was still agitated and talked incessantly. Finally, he lifted himself up into a seated position, pulled up his garment and showed me the wound. It entered the layer of fat above his right hip, harmlessly traveled around his perimeter and came out near his navel. “See that? See that?” he said in excited indignation. “Christ Don,” I replied, “if you hadn’t been so damned fat, he would have missed you altogether.” Joe and Mike cackled unashamedly but I knew Don wouldn’t laugh. Even under normal circumstances, he had no humor.