High-level rescue work saves man

The Ozaukee Central Fire Department knew there was a chance, no matter how remote, that firefighters and ambulance crews could be called to Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, where an expansion project is ongoing, so members developed a plan to deal with the potential that someone atop a construction crane would need help.

They had been preparing for a practice to test the plan, but that didn’t happen. Instead, they tested it in real life last week when a 28-year-old man suffered a medical emergency 160 feet in the air while operating a crane on Friday morning.

The incident began about 9:30 a.m. July 10, when the crane operator’s co-workers couldn’t reach him by radio, Fire Chief Matthew Karpinski said. They climbed up and found him unresponsive, then called 911.

Emergency crews arrived quickly, with the first crew climbing up the same ladder system the operator uses to go up to his control center at the top of the crane every morning and evening, Karpinski said.

“The only way a person can come up or down is through the ladder system,” he said. “It’s not easy.”

They moved the operator out of the cab and began treating him, Karpinski said, adding the man remained stable throughout the incident.

That helped, he said, because they didn’t have to rush to get the man down from the crane.

“That (getting him down) is obviously a high-risk endeavor,” Karpinski said.

While the first crew began treating the man, he said, emergency workers on the ground began assembling the needed equipment and preparing a rigging to get it to the patient.

They ultimately used the crane to help lift the equipment, he said.

Crews ascended the crane as needed throughout the rescue, Karpinski said, noting it wasn’t possible for too many people to get to the scene.

The crew finally got the man off the crane in a Stokes basket using a rigging they set up on the crane, he said, because it wasn’t safe to use the crane.

But once on the ground, Karpinski said, they wheeled him into the emergency room just a couple hundred feet away.

Karpinski said he has not received an update on the worker’s condition.

To say the scene and operation was challenging might be an understatement, Karpinski said.

“This was a first for us,” he said. “This definitely was not something we normally encounter.”

One major issue was the cramped space in which the crew worked, Karpinski said, noting the platform was only about 36 inches wide.

“As you’re trying to do things, there was only so much space,” he said.

The fact emergency workers had to manually climb to the top of the crane was also a challenge, given the recent warm weather, Karpinski said.

“Luckily it wasn’t too bad on Friday,” he said, adding that crews brought water up to the workers atop the rig during the rescue. “We’re definitely glad it happened last week and not this week (when temperatures and humidity spiked).”

The fact the department had developed a plan, albeit an untested one, was a benefit, Karpinski said, adding they still plan to hold an aerial rescue practice in the coming months.

“We’ve done a lot of low-angle rescues on the bluff, but not a lot of high-angle rescues,” he said. “There aren’t a lot of tall buildings where this would be needed.

“But when this was built, it was on our radar.”

The Ozaukee Central and Port Washington fire departments responded to the scene, and they were aided by the crew from Boldt Construction, the contractor on the hospital project.

“They were super helpful,” Karpinski said. “Any little thing we needed, they had quickly. Any help they could give, they did.”