Authors: Patrick Abbruzzi
In the end, he decided to just watch a little television and relax. He wasn’t at al
l
hungry and went without supper figuring he could always grab something a
t
work. He sat on the couch, put the TV on and watched the news. Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long before he got tired of seeing and listening to reports of murders and robberies. He got enough of that at work.
He began to feel tired again and shut hi
s
eyes but was smart enough to set an alarm clock just in case he overslept. Annette wasn’t going to be home to wake him and he didn’t want to be late. He slept soundly for almost four hours and woke up feelin
g
rested. He shaved and showered and left for work.
Annette hadn’t called again so he decided to pass by her office on his way to work. He had to g
o
somewhat out of his way to do this but didn’t mind. When he got to her building he saw that all the light
s
were out and there weren’t any cars in the parking lot. He surmised tha
t
he had probably just missed her or perhaps she stopped with some of he
r
friends to get a bite to eat on the way home, which was not unusual for her.
Seventeen
When he got to work, although he was a little later than usual
,
Charlie still had time to have coffee in the sitting room with the guys. He was stressed out thinking about Terry and now Annette, and although it was a Friday night and he knew it would be busy, he could only hope it would be busier than usual
.
H
e
noticed that Lt. A. had already changed into his uniform so Charlie dressed quickly for the street and returned to the sitting room. Once there, he took a seat and lit up a cigarette.
A few minutes later the lieutenant and sergeant entered the room and began the roll call then th
e
lieutenant began to speak. Lt. A. always like
d
to impart some knowledge that would be useful to his men on patrol. Sometimes it was about some obscure law they could use to write som
e
scumbag up or arrest someone, while other times it was just friendl
y
advice or a scoop on some inside information.
Late tour crews often missed out on some of the dirt that was happening among them and its members were like the whores of the precinct. Nobody told them much of anything or even cared.
During the meeting, the lieutenant spoke about the bars on Bay Street which catered to the drug users and underage teens that came from New Jersey to drink. The aforementioned bars were not friends to the cops but were a source of danger becaus
e
of the fights that began in them, usually over girls and watered down drinks. The lieutenant was sure to stress the importance of no one attempting anything without calling for back-u
p
first, saying he would back anyone up who wanted to issue a summons for a disorderly premise or make a collar.
When the meeting was over the lieutenant said he wanted to go out early so Charlie grabbed the keys to the RMP from the front desk and walked out to the waiting car where it was parked directly in the rear of the station house. He knew he would have to gas it up because Officer
Knobb
e
had been driving the 4X12 Platoon Commander earlier and he never left a radio ca
r
with gas like he was supposed to. He was a lazy son o
f
a bitch.
After filling up the tank Charlie passed the gasoline log book over to the next operator who was waiting in line to gas up. The lieutenant was waiting for him at the pump and, as Charlie finished, Lt. A. got in and made himself comfortable. Usually they would stop and get coffee but it was busy so they decided to hold off until it quieted down. Why waste a good cup o
f
coffee by throwing it out the window?
Charlie headed out of the side lot and down Wall Street, making a right onto the Terrace and heading towards Stapleton, the lieutenant’s old sector and stomping grounds. The car’s radio was busy and hummed with job
s
being dispatched to even the 122
nd
and 123
rd
precincts. Usually those precincts were fairly quiet but on Friday nights they had more than thei
r
share of disorderly groups and disputes. The 122
nd
also had its normal number o
f
vehicle accidents, especially since Hylan Boulevard was well liked by speeders.
On this particular night the ESU Sergeant had taken off and Lt. A. had been assigned to also cover the ESU units throughout the entire borough. Lt. A. enjoyed covering th
e
emergency service units because it gave him greater authority to respon
d
to all jobs that the elite units were assigned to.
Charlie was glad, too, because it offered him a change of scenery. It also meant they could drive to both of their homes in th
e
adjoining precincts and do it legally. This was a side benefit in working in the borough in which you resided.
As they drove around the lieutenant began to tell Charlie something which was a direc
t
result of a job they had handled together a few weeks earlier.
It had been a humid night and even though it was 2:00 A.M. the thermomete
r
still read 87 degrees. It had been a busy night also and much busier than usual. All the sectors were either on assignment or tied up in the station house wit
h
collars already. There were two sergeants on patrol and even they ha
d
taken jobs in order to keep the precinct out of a radio backlog, which would occur whenever there were more than five assignments waitin
g
to be answered or more than two jobs held for more than five minutes.
It was inevitable on this particular night that the lieutenant not only got calle
d
in his role as Platoon Commander, but he was also used because another car had been assigned to other jobs. As soon as the next job made it onto the radi
o
dispatcher’s screen, she called the lieutenant.
“120 Platoon Commander,” the female dispatcher’s voice came across the radio.
“120 Lieutenant, standing by,” answered the boss.
“120 Lieutenant, respond to 375 Willow brook Road on a 10-54 cardiac arrest,” she instructed.
“10-4, en route,” he responded back, and they were on their way.
Willow Brook Road was in a nice section of the precinct. It was still considere
d
part of the Westerleigharea, which consisted of one an
d
two family homes with nicely manicured lawns and pools in the backyards. It was also situated directly behind All Saints Episcopal Church which house
d
daycare centers and was forever in the local paper for conducting foo
d
drives for the needier population of the precinct.
Charlie pulled up in front of 375 and noticed that the EMS ambulance had already arrived and the techs were busy carrying in their gear for cardiac cases.
The EMS technicians and Lt. A. made it to the door simultaneously and wer
e
greeted by a frantic, middle-aged woman who was crying and yelling at th
e
same time for the care givers to hurry.
The woman wore a night coat and it was obvious that she had been sleeping and had been woken up by something or someone in the house. She led the men into her kitchen, passing through her living room which was nicel
y
furnished with blue rugs and a matching sofa. The adjacent dining room had a huge table that could easily sit te
n
to twelve people. Beyond the table was a well-stocked bar with beautifu
l
glasses and brands of every kind of liquor.
When they entered the kitchen they immediately noticed a man, wearing a white tee shirt and a pair of briefs, lying on the floor. He had likely gotten up to get something from the kitchen and simpl
y
collapsed just a few steps away from the counter. He was beginning to turn blue, which was an obvious sign of cardiac arrest.
The EMS people began to do their work in earnest. They cut a hole i
n
the man’s shirt with a pair of surgical scissors and attached the portable EKG machine. Almost immediately the machine began spewing ou
t
pieces of paper detailing the man’s electrocardiogram data. Within seconds they had place
d
an oxygen mask over the victim’s nose and mouth and began CPR. Soon the man began to regain some colo
r
and didn’t appear to be blue anymore. Charlie and the lieutenant both knew that the improvement of the man’s skin color simply could have resulted from the artificial stimulation by the EMS team and not necessarily been from the involuntary beating of the man’s heart.
Just inside the doorway, the man’s wife was holding their teenage daughter who was sobbing gently. Lt. A. walked over to them and took the woman’s hands into his own. H
e
assured her that her husband would pull through this and woul
d
be fine. After reassuring them for a moment or two, he soon had them sitting down
,
talking to him. He explained that as soon as they would be able to stabilize him, their loved one would be transported to the emergency room at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
The EMS tech worked on the cardiac victim for a good 45 minutes more then finally signaled th
e
lieutenant that they were ready to transport him. Right away one of the other techs grabbed the lieutenant on the side and told him to tel
l
the victim’s wife and daughter that they should be prepared for the worst. Instead of telling the family this, however, Lt. A. instructed them to grab their coats and keys and follow th
e
ambulance to the hospital.
The wife was really upset and the lieutenant didn’t think she was cal
m
enough to drive herself. When he offered to take her to the hospital, sh
e
took him up on the offer. The daughter followed in the family car. The ride took less than five minutes and both mother and daughter followed the gurney into the emergency room.
As Lt. A. and Charlie resumed patrol, Charlie wondered why the lieutenant had brought this incident up. He knew something had happened which was a direct result of this particular call they’d been on, but he just didn’t see what it was.
“Charlie, remember when I told you that some days are good and some are bad?”
Charlie nodded as the lieutenant continued.
“Well a few weeks after that incident I received a letter at the precinct from this particula
r
family. It was signed by the man who survived that night. He was released from the hospital after two weeks, exercises every day, and was put on a special diet. He wanted to thank me personally and invited me to his house for coffee.
I
called him and politely declined but he insisted that he wanted to see me so I stopped by one night before coming into work.
“He took me int
o
his kitchen and introduced me to his wife and daughter who, of course
,
I had already met, and he thanked me for calming them that night
.
He said he saw what I did when I took his wife’s hands int
o
my own and he thanked me for driving her to the hospital. I aske
d
him what he meant and if he had spoken to his wife about that night, but he assured me he had not yet spoken to her about any of it. In fact, he said he had not spoken about it to anyone because he didn’t want people to think he was crazy.
“I asked why he chose me to tell, and do you know what he said, Charlie?” the lieutenant asked. Charlie could only shake his head as Lt. A. continued. “He said he thought that
I
was caring enough to share it with. Humbled, I let him speak.”
“Lieutenant Audenino, I don’t know where to begin. I’ve only been hom
e
for a few weeks but I feel as if I’m about to lose my mind if I don’t tell this to somebody. What I do know is that I seem to value everythin
g
around me more. Life is so precious and beautiful,” he said, holding bac
k
tears.
It was obvious to me that this guy was just happy to be alive. After all, he had been at death’s door. Anyone who had been what he’d been through would be happy to be alive an
d
appreciate everything more. I could tell he was eager to continue, so I nodded for him to go on.