By Jill King Greenwood
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Fire Captain James Petruzzi knows a thing or two about battling through tough situations.
The 31-year veteran has fought more fires than he could ever count — including a fatal 1995 blaze that took the lives of three fellow firefighters.
Then, one night in May, he found himself in the fight of his life.
Petruzzi, 55, was working at Engine 8 in East Liberty when he developed a terrible headache, began stumbling and fell into a table. Reaching for aspirin is the last thing he remembers.
Bleeding in his brain had caused a stroke. Petruzzi was put in a medicated coma and spent the next several months learning to walk, talk and feed himself.
The doctors said he might be able to return to work eventually.
But Petruzzi threw himself into physical, speech and occupational therapy, and defied all expectations — he was back on the job last week.
“I guess I surprised everybody,” said Petruzzi, of Beechview. “All I knew was I was coming back to this job.”
The crew at Engine 8 had just returned from fighting a fire the night of May 24 when Petruzzi went upstairs to do paperwork. A slight headache grew worse, and he stumbled downstairs.
“I was just starting to make dinner for the house and he came in, walked into a wall and was holding his head,” said firefighter Danny Doyle. “Then he fell on the table.”
Firefighters took Petruzzi’s blood pressure: It was soaring at 240/120. He was taken to UPMC Shadyside, where doctors told his wife, Monica, to pray.
His condition deteriorated, and he was rushed to surgery to relieve the swelling in his brain. Petruzzi has no memory of being in the hospital.
“Believe me, he doesn’t want to,” his wife said. “It was awful, horrible. He couldn’t talk or walk and he was confused all the time.”
As Petruzzi emerged from sedation and began the road to recovery, those who visited him when he was transferred to UPMC Mercy for rehabilitation were shocked by his appearance.
“I can’t even let my mind go there,” said firefighter Rich Shay. “I had so many emotions about what was happening with him. I hated to see him like that.”
At 6 feet tall, Petruzzi’s weight had dropped from 240 pounds to 150. He was often confused and disoriented, convinced at one point that he had just bought an RV. Many times he would talk endlessly as if he was at the scene of a fire.
When nurses came into his hospital room at night and turned on the light, he automatically tried to jump out of bed, “because for years and years that’s what I’ve done as a firefighter.
“The alarm goes off, the light goes on and you jump,” he said.
By the time he was allowed to go home in July, he could walk with the assistance of a walker.
“They told me they were basically sending me home with a toddler,” his wife said. “He couldn’t really do anything for himself.”
Determined not be a burden, Petruzzi spent hours doing word puzzles and other cognitive exercises to reclaim his critical thinking and reasoning.
“Initially it took me about a half an hour to do one of those puzzles,” he said. “By the time I was finishing therapy I was doing five in 20 minutes. The doctors told me I had to learn to rewire my own brain.”
Petruzzi, who always has spent hours a day in the gym lifting weights, was just as dogged with his physical therapy.
“I’ve never seen someone work so hard to recover,” Doyle said.
Doctors said he might be well enough to return to work next year. He was determined to be back by Christmas.
As he sat in the fire station Friday, firefighters from other stations dropped by to greet him.
“You look better than I do,” one yelled as they hugged.
“He’s the miracle captain,” another said.
“Firefighting is his life,” his wife said. “It’s a miracle that he survived this, and that he’s back doing that job. I am just so thankful.”
Copyright 2010 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved