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Bungled Rescue

BoneheadNW

BoneheadNW

Active member
I would like you to read the story below and then take a look at the video. In San Francisco, an off duty firefighter attempts to rescue a man who is possibly thinking of jumping off a 5 story roof. While I believe the firefighters methods are definately not by the book, the jumper's family's reaction to the video really pisses me off.

Tell me, does it look as though the man wants to jump off the building (watch where he puts his hands and feet) or, as the family believes, did the firefighter mistakenly think so.
Bonehead

Fatal rooftop struggle caught on tape

[SIZE=-1]October 24, 2006

By Matt Markovich [/SIZE]
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Video : KOMO 4 NEWS[FONT=verdana, Arial,Geneva]Nick Torrico's family on Tuesday saw for the first time the video that captured the final moments of his life, and they say it shows a botched rescue attempt.[/FONT]

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[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Fatal rooftop struggle caught on tape[/FONT]


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[FONT=verdana, arial,geneva]SEATTLE - Nick Torrico's family on Tuesday saw for the first time the video that captured the final moments of his life.
The Seattle man fell five stories to his death after a firefighter tried to grab him from a rooftop ledge. The firefighter says he was trying to stop Torrico from committing suicide.
But Nick's family doesn't believe it.
"This should not have happened," said Nick's sister, Cynthia Torrico. "I wanted so badly for that movie to have a different ending."
She had just seen the last seconds of her 26-year-old brother's life.
"It makes me so made that that I can't trust our fireman now," Cynthia said.
It happens very fast. On a roof five stories above the ground, San Francisco firefighter Vic Wyrsch thinks Nick Torrico is going to jump. The video shows Wyrsch sneak up from behind and grab Nick.
Nick twists and dangles over the edge of the roof, but Wyrsch couldn't hang on. Nick fell to the sidewalk below. He was still breathing when medics arrived, but he died at San Francisco General Hospital.
"It was a bumbled save and rescue and no wonder Nick fell," said Nick's mother, Bonnie.
The video, which was shot by a tourist, brings to light the controversy. Were the firefighter's actions appropriate, or did they contribute to Nick's death?
A former hostage negotiator who has seen the tape believes Wyrsch's quick actions cut short attempts at talking Nick down, which were already underway.
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"I think it's important to let them exhaust all of those efforts before we try something more dangerous," said Tony Hare, a former negotiator for the Oakland Police Department.
The family is angrier now than ever before, believing Wyrsch surprised Nick when he stuck up from behind. They say Wyrsch's decision to act alone and to not wear a harness contributed to Nick's death.
Wyrsch called the family on Saturday to explain his actions and told them that Nick wanted to jump.
After seeing the tape Nick's family says that's not true, pointing out that in the video they saw Nick trying to hold on.
"He said 'I bear hugged him, I got a good grip on him and your brother started wrestling,'" Christina said, recounting the conversation with Wyrsch. "He said (my brother) wanted to go over so bad. He was hooking his foot on the ledge. It's a lie now and I know it is because I've seen the video."
Wyrsch defended his actions in an interview with the San Francisco Examiner, telling the paper that "He was scooting toward the ledge. I couldn't believe it. This guy was fighting to get over the ledge."
Nick's family believes the fire department is protecting of of its own from the mistakes he made.
"He did it so wrong," Cynthia said. "He should not have done that." The San Francisco medical examiner has not yet made a ruling on Nick's manner of death.
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When I was on the squad, we had a belief that if someone wanted to commit suicide, there was no sense in trying to stop them because they would succeed the next time, or the time after that. More than once we would get them to a mental facility and when they got out, they would make another attempt. Sometimes they succeeded the second time, other times, they had to make it multiple tries.
In this case, the person put themselves on the ledge. No one else did that, and the firefighter was just trying to do his best to save him. The family would have moaned if he jumped and the firefighter stood by and did nothing. This is a classic case of no matter what that firefighter did or didn't do, the outcome would have been the same once the person was dead. It is easy to debate the situation afterwords, but you have to be there when some of the split second decisions are made with the best information that is available at the time. In my opinion, the firefighter did his best, but his best was not enough to stop this determined person..
 
There's no valid place in the article to click on the video link.
 
It seems pretty obvious to me that he wanted to jump.

I think the family is in denial about him wanting/trying to commit suicide and is trying to lay the blame on anyone (everyone) other than their family member.
 
The guy actually tried to run off the edge just after he was grabbed. If someone wanted to live 1. they wouldnt have been on the roof 2. they would have tried to climb back up 3. they wouldnt have tried to twist out of the guys grip.
 
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