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Local wildland firefighter steps up in cardiac emergency
TELL CITY – When it comes to being a wildland firefighter, Tyler Hatfield would say it is just different from working as a “structure” firefighter. In essence, though, it reflects the grunt life he is accustomed to in the first place.
Wildland firefighters “do” fires by conducting periodic controlled burns, which are intended to mimic natural conditions that shore up habitats and promote biodiversity. There is little waiting involved. They will go out and rough it, which is fine by Hatfield being a military man. Even so, they still have to be prepared otherwise for medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests.
For Hatfield, a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service based out of Bedford in the Hoosier National Forest, such an incident did occur on a prescribed burn at the Indian-Celina Lakes Recreation Area near Tell City on Easter. His actions proved to be crucial in saving the life of a fellow fireman.
Hatfield and two other first responders were wrapping up their end on a 450-acre burn when a call came in for an unknown medical emergency near the Celina Lake boat ramp. They arrived at the location two minutes later to find the patient lying face down halfway under a truck, not breathing and without a pulse.
Recounting those first few minutes, Hatfield said he initially had the notion that it was a cardiac arrest. He was unfazed. He knew what to do.
“At that time, I came up and said, ‘Hey, no pulse. Let’s get him out from under the truck. We gotta go to work,’” Hatfield said about assessing the situation before beginning CPR. “That was it from there. I was like, ‘This is it. Let’s go.’ I got in that mode and went to work.”
Hatfield completed three rounds of chest compressions with breathing before an AED was delivered from an engine. He continued CPR as the patient was shocked prior to EMS arriving with an ambulance. Once they transferred primary care, Hatfield and the two personnel with him assisted with more shocks, putting on a bag valve mask and pushing epinephrine.
The patient finally showed a pulse and began to breathe partially on his own before Hatfield drove the ambulance to a medical helicopter staged on State Road 37. He was shocked a total of eight times and was dead for about 24 minutes.
Hatfield noted that the whole operation was “crazy.” While the other first responders there were stunned by it all, he taking on the initiative made a difference.
“That just goes to show that minutes count,” he said about responding to cardiac emergencies in general. “As soon as you see someone go down, you recognize it, take their pulse and start.”
The patient Hatfield helped save is Todd Wood, who has served as the assistant superintendent of the Flagstaff Hotshots in Arizona and has been in the fire service for nearly three decades. At the time of the incident, he was assisting with “holding the line” (i.e. creating a fire line to contain a spread) on the burn as an emergency firefighter.
After having two stents put in, Wood was kept in intensive care at a Louisville hospital for a short time before being cleared. Eleven days after the incident, he was able to connect with Hatfield and the fellow first responders who came to his aid.
Hatfield related that Wood is “surreal” about going down. He still asks, “What the hell happened?”
“I know it sounds weird, but the closure is that someone’s dead,” he said about similar medicals which do not end well. “I didn’t have any closure until I saw him standing there. It’s still trying to sink in with me that he’s still alive. I’ve seen a lot of stuff like that.”
Hatfield is a 20-year Army veteran with two deployments to Iraq and another to Afghanistan under his belt. While currently a part-time firefighter with the Greencastle Fire Department, he was full time there for almost five years before getting into wildland firefighting in April 2021. He previously served as a volunteer with the Reelsville Volunteer Fire Department.
“That (being in the military) has a lot coming into, ‘Well, I’m taking charge of this,’” Hatfield said about having that initiative. “Someone’s got to.”
Hatfield does not expect accolades for his part in saving Wood’s life. Maybe like other first responders would say, he was doing his job, doing what he was put here to accomplish. His message is that seeing an emergency like this and getting after it is what he would want someone else to do for him.
“Anybody can do CPR,” Hatfield summed up. “Recognize it and start it. And then it’s just keeping it going and working together. Some people don’t come back from it. But you got to try. You have to give them that fighting chance.”