FF Injury Update

JUST OVER TWO MONTHS AGO, ON SEPT. 9, a Kingston, Ontario, VFD engine was responding on a call when one of the cab doors suddenly opened and one of the firefighters tumbled out striking her head hard on the pavement.

Firegeezer reported the incident HERE.

Tracy Killoran, age 33 and the mother of two youngsters, suffered a severe head injury and also a mangled arm from being dragged along the pavement.  A few days later she underwent surgery and remained in a coma for another four weeks.  She has awakened now, but if far from being able to leave the hospital.  She will be there for a long time and really doesn’t yet have the ability to recognize things or make out words.

The original article in the Kingston Whig Standard quoted the Fire Chief with dropping a couple of jewels like: 

On the matter of seat belts, he said that the FF’s are “supposed” to buckle up before the vehicle rolls, but “It’s not uncommon to buckle in on your way, as opposed to doing it before the vehicle rolls.”

And:  “…it is a longstanding practice in the fire service industry to cut corners in the rush to help.  I can honestly tell you … it’s the unwritten rule in the business, even though we have strict policies against it.”

As well as:  He further said it’s not unusual for the door of a fire vehicle to open suddenly.  “We’ve had doors fly open,” he said. “We’ve had compartment doors fly open and equipment come out of it.”

On October 31 the Whig Standard published a background story on her and the family.  It has more of what’s going on.  The story is no longer in the newspaper’s online archive for you to read, so I have pulled up a cached copy of it and posted it in its entirety.

I know that it’s against the rules to do that, but I want you to be able to see it.  Just promise me that you won’t turn me in to the Canadian copyright police, ok?

Click on the “Continue Reading” link to see it.

by Robb Tripp,

For six-year-old Nathan Killoran and his nine-year-old sister, Brianna, the long time that the adults talk about has no meaning.

It will be a long time, they’ve been told, before their mother, a once vibrant and fit 33-year-old woman, is better. It may be a long time before she leaves hospital.

“They just want mom home,” says Chris Killoran, their father. “They’re having a hard time with it.”

It – this unappreciable event for those who have not endured it – is a calamity that began on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Kingston more than six weeks ago.

Tracy Killoran, a fiercely dedicated volunteer firefighter, inexplicably tumbled out the front passenger door of a fire truck as it wheeled round a corner, rushing to one of the dozens – perhaps hundreds – of emergency calls to which the young mother had been.

Killoran’s head struck the pavement. Her right arm was badly damaged as it dragged along the asphalt.

She was rushed to hospital, where she has remained since the Sept. 9 accident.

Her husband has visited her there every day, confronting the uncertainty of a serious head injury.

“I just thought it was time people knew she was not in the situation she was in,” he says, explaining why he is willing now to talk about it.

Seated on the living room couch of the family’s west-end home, festooned with family photos, Killoran is composed and hopeful.

“She’s progressing well,” he says. “She’s not in a coma anymore.”

His wife is confused, he says, and easily agitated. It’s unclear if she knows where she is or what has happened to her, but there are promising signs.

“She’s starting to say the odd word,” he says.

Nathan and Brianna have visited her in hospital.

“We’re pretty sure she knows who they are,” says a father battling to preserve a family’s way of life. “I’m trying to keep my children in as much of a normal life as I can.”

It’s not easy as a shift worker at Invista, where he puts in 12-hour shifts, juggles the school commitments and activities of his children and spends hours at the hospital with his wife.

“It’s a struggle,” he says, offering no closer view of the emotions within.

“I have my days,” he says concisely.

His employer and the fire department have been remarkably accommodating and understanding, Killoran says, praising them for their support. 

Tracy also works at Invista. The couple met there more than 12 years ago – connected by a friend. They married eight years ago.

If it is hard for him to see her trapped in a hospital bed he isn’t showing it.

“I enjoy seeing her,” he says of his daily visits to the hospital ward.

The week of the accident, he was planning to begin helping her with a rigorous workout regime at the gym.

Tracy hoped to compete in the firefighter combat challenge, a competition that pits firefighters against each other in a timed course with tasks that test skills they use in real-life situations. “That’s what she had her mind set on next,” he says.

He was confident she could do it.

“She’s a pretty strong-willed person.”

Chris Killoran gave up volunteer firefighting about two years ago, just before the couple moved from Verona to Kingston, to allow his wife to continue to volunteer.

The couple volunteered in South Frontenac. Tracy was hired by Kingston Fire and Rescue after the move and she worked out of the Woodbine Road hall. 

A large framed photo of the Killorans, clad in the thick brown canvas-like bunker suits of firefighters, posed in front of a shiny red truck, smiles down from a living room shelf.

Next to it is a toy antique fire truck under glass. A large coffee table book about firefighting stands next to the model.

Tracy Killoran got the firefighting bug at Invista, where she worked on the plant fire team.

“She had a really deep passion for it,” says Chris Killoran. “It’s something she’s always wanted to do.”

Her drive and her youthful energy will help her with the looming rehabilitation battle, he believes.

“She’s a strong person,” he says. “She’s fighting very hard to get out of [hospital].”

Killoran hopes to have a present for his wife when she is able to come home.

Her wedding ring, a whitegold band with a layer of diamonds, has disappeared. He believes that it may have slipped off her finger during the accident.

“I’ve looked high and low for it,” he says.

Killoran and other family members and  even firefighters have scoured the curb near the accident scene for the piece of jewelry.

He hopes that someone has seen it or has it, and will return it the Woodbine Road firehall.

He has no idea, should the ring reappear, when his wife would recognize its significance.

Doctors cannot say how she might recover, or when.

“She’s got a long road ahead,” says Chris Killoran.