By Jeff Adelson
The Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — Donald Schultz spent 36 years of his life saving people as a member of the New Orleans Fire Department.
But when he collapsed in his kitchen shortly before lunch Aug. 6, he found himself on the other side, depending on emergency crews to save his life. And, knowing that first responders don’t often get credit for the lives they save, he decided to honor them Sept. 11.
“Firemen get no recognition, very little recognition over the course of their careers,” Schultz said.
Schultz, who recently retired from the New Orleans Fire Department as a district chief in May, fell to the floor as he walked into his home near Slidell about 11 a.m. Firefighters with St. Tammany Parish’s Fire Protection District No. 1 rushed to the scene, and performed life-saving measures until Acadian Ambulance arrived, he said.
Doctors at the hospital said if crews had arrived minutes later, Schultz, 59, might have died.
At the hospital Schultz, who still is walking with the help of a cane, learned he had blot clots in both lungs, another clot in his knee and a tumor in his kidney. The clots in his lungs and the tumor were treated, though he still is dealing with the third clot.
“Everyone said you’ll be golfing and fishing in 30 days,” Schultz said. “But it didn’t work out that way.”
On Sept. 11, a day he chose because of its special significance for first-responders, Schultz honored the crew that saved his life with a plaque and his thanks.
Nathan Thigpen, an operator on the engine that responded to Schultz’s call, said his show of gratitude was unusually generous. Although firefighters often receive food or other small exhibitions of thanks from the people they save, they don’t typically receive public praise and awards.
“I don’t do this job for this,” Thigpen said. But when someone shows this kind of gratitude, it feels good, he said.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company