by California Casualty | Peace Officers |
This Guest Blog post by Suddenly Cop Wife blogger, Stella, is the featured article in our Law Enforcement News Resource: The Blue Bulletin. To sign up to receive the Blue Bulletin in your inbox once a month, click here!
Holly Days | Guest Blog by Stella of Suddenly Cop Wife
I’m a Holiday Person. I love them all, especially Christmas, but I have been known to go a little overboard for random Holidays such as Arbor Day. (You mean you don’t have a Tree Party?) My husband—when he likes me—calls me his little Elf. When he’s annoyed, well…different story for a different time.
Christmas is especially important to me because it is jam-packed with so many memories; some good, some not so good. When I was really young, I had the most fabulous Christmases with my grandparents making the Season bright, and the extended family was all together, carrying on the same traditions year after year. I loved everything from the dawn of Thanksgiving Day to sunset on New Year’s Day: the sights, the smells, the music, the food, the decorations…I could go on, but you get the idea.
Then came a very dark period in my life. My mother got remarried, and the man she was married to was an abusive drug addict. My Christmases turned awful; we were no longer allowed to go see my grandparents, and we were always teetering on the edge of poverty, so money was strictly for survival, not to be used for silly things like tinsel and gifts.
I vowed, each year as I recalled the way Christmas could be, I swore to myself, God, and anyone who would listen, that one day I would make Christmas special again. For me. For my future husband. For whoever darkened our door.
I’ve kept my promise. Since I’ve been on my own, I’ve recreated my Grandmother’s gift of an amazing Christmastime as best I could. When I married my husband, I practically drowned him with my traditions. I was determined to make up for all that I had lost; and reclaim the joy I had once known.
Little did I know that my husband would one day choose to become a Cop. For those of you who don’t already know, I write a Blog called Suddenly Cop Wife because one day (or so it seemed) my husband suddenly decided to become a Cop. With that came big changes in our everyday lives and, of course, huge changes to our Holiday festivities.
Since Rocco became a cop, we have had Thanksgiving the day before, the day after, and even the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. This year I found myself alone on Thanksgiving Day, prepping for our celebration on Friday.
As so many of us know, making a great Holiday is a lot of work. Knee-deep in the cleaning, cooking, and setting up, I began wondering at some point if all the work was even worth my while. For most people, the day after Thanksgiving means the kickoff of Christmas; Black Friday shopping for some, a day at home with families for others, catching up on things like reading the paper or watching a football game. For us, it’s Thanksgiving.
My husband got a horrible rotation this year. It’s nothing he’s done and it has absolutely nothing to do with seniority. The NYPD puts people in different Squads, and the Squads rotate the way of the calendar, and this year the calendar is not on our side. He will have to work Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day.
I would be lying if I told you that I was not severely disappointed.
I am. There’s a small part of me that would like to throw my hands up in the air and say screw it, why bother? I am tired of trying to recreate Christmas Eve Dinner on December 29th, or trying like hell to stay awake when he finally rolls through the door at 4:00 AM on New Year’s Eve which has already turned to Day.
When I feel that way, I think of my friends who have husbands in the Military and will end up doing Christmas sometime in July. After I get done feeling sorry for myself, I realize I am lucky. I am able, albeit on a different day, to keep our traditions alive and to bind us together making new ones. It’s important to keep trying, because marriage is about trying a little more each and every day.
I’m also lucky because I have my Holidays back. Maybe they’re celebrated on a different day, but they’re all mine, and my Cop’s. They are what they are, and right now they’re worth fighting for…even if Easter is in June.
I wish you all the Happiest Holidays and some time alone with your Police Officer. May they be safe and may your days be filled with Peace. Oh, and hug your cop.
Trust me…it makes a difference.
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About Stella NYC
Suddenly Cop Wife is authored by the wife of a Police Officer, a blogger who writes under the name ‘Stella New York.’ Stella is a fitness instructor and personal trainer. She is also the loving and supporting wife of a NYPD officer. When Stella isn’t busy working, supporting her husband, and blogging about their experiences, she also hosts a live show all about being a law enforcement wife called ‘Suddenly Cop Wife LIVE!’ Aside from being a great resource for LEOs and their families, Suddenly Cop Wife is honest. It’s a great blog for LEO families that want to hear from someone that shares their struggles, and isn’t afraid to talk about them.
To read our Q&A with Stella NYC, click here.
by California Casualty | Educators, Firefighters, Nominate a Hero, Nurses |
Nominate Your Hero Here!
Congrats to Mark R – our Hero of the Month for December. You can read every finalist’s story below!
Name: Scott D.
Profession: Registered Nurse
Nominated by: Barbara S.
Described as an inspiration to all who know him, Scott is a Registered Nurse working as a home visitor with a hospice unit. Before going into nursing, Scott saved lives as a combat engineer & infantryman with the US Army, jump master, parachute trainer, rescue scuba diver and former Fire Chief. Scott also frequently volunteers to work with the homeless, buying them food and helping them find services and resources. He has also worked with the Veterans Association, attending military funerals and visiting homebound veterans. In his role as a hospice nurse, Scott often brings his beloved dogs with him on home visits. He even volunteered to adopt a veteran’s dog when the owner moved into an assisted living facility. Scott’s nominator, Barbara, describes him as ‘a true hero to his neighbors and friends’ who ‘has been there to help when no one else stepped up.’
Scott D. and his nominator, Barbara
Name: Mark R.
Profession: Firefighter & EMT
Nominated by: Jessica M., a former patient
Mark and Jessica met under the worst of circumstances. A driver crashed into a car carrying Jessica and her daughter, Kendra, on a backwoods rural road. Mark and his team responded to the scene. As responders worked on freeing Jessica from the vehicle, she remembers Mark crawling into the car beside her, assessing her medical state and updating her on Kendra’s condition. “He not only took care of me that day, he held my hand, made me human not just a patient,” remembers Jessica. Following the accident, Mark traveled to check on Jessica’s daughter after she underwent brain surgery. Even now, Mark continues to keep tabs on Kendra, responding whenever she has a medical emergency, even if he’s off-duty, and organizing fellow firefighters to help build a wheelchair ramp for her home. Seven years after their fateful meeting, the three remain close friends.
From Left to Right: Kendra, Mark, Jessica, Willy and Bill. Mark, Willy and Bill all responded to the accident.
Name: Marilyn M.
Profession: Educator
Nominated by: Kendra N.
Marilyn has dedicated more than 40 years of her life to Education. She got her start in the early 70’s, teaching deaf and blind students in one of the first programs developed specifically for these children. Marilyn then moved to a small Alaskan village to teach Special Education. For years, she traveled around Alaska evaluating and writing programs for severely handicapped children and teaching Special Education and Kindergarten. After 30 years of teaching, Marilyn retired to Oregon and began working as a Reading Teacher. Motivated by her own struggles as a young student, she has a passion for helping students learn to read and write. Her successful reading program has helped countless young students over the course of her career. Marilyn retired from teaching in 2002, but continued to pursue her passion for education by working as a teacher’s aide, reading assistant and librarian. She is still actively working and volunteering in the Oregon school system, where ‘her excellence in teaching and working with young kids has always been apparent to the kids, the parents, other staff, and administration.’
Marilyn and one of her students in Alaska in the 1980’s
Name: John B.
Profession: Firefighter & Paramedic
Nominated by: Lori B., his wife
The son of a Chief of Police and Registered Nurse, John knew he wanted to be a Fireman at age 2. John started his Firefighting career roughly 38 years ago and launched his nonprofit, Firefighters for Fun, just 8 years later. He now travels the country educating children with his fire truck and ambulance classrooms, passing out extensive resources and spreading his ‘If you can be Heard, you can be Rescued’ motto. The life-saving potential of John’s mission was proved just a few weeks ago, when a wheelchair-bound man was saved from a dangerous house fire after his neighbors were able to find and rescue him thanks to a whistle John had given the man just months earlier. John uses all his spare time, including vacations, raising money for Firefighters for Fun, even converting another old fire truck into a mobile restaurant serving up food and fire knowledge at state fairs to help raise funds.
John teaching children CPR using his HOTS (Helping Others to Survive) Ambulance Classroom
by California Casualty | Nurses |
It was almost nine o’clock on Sunday morning and Joyce DeZutti was running late. Along with her daughters Giovanna and Antoinette and her friend Andrea Skillman, Joyce had just enjoyed a weekend of pampering at the spa and was headed back to the airport. Suddenly, her limo slowed and swung out to the side, veering out of the way to drive around a car accident. Out the window, the women saw two vehicles, one looking banged up and the other flipped over completely. Joyce turned to her daughter and asked if she’d seen an ambulance at the scene. As Giovanna responded that she had not, Joyce immediately yelled, “Stop now!” to the limo driver, lunging toward the partition to get his attention.
“There was no way that limo was going by that accident,” says DeZutti. “Even if I had to go through that partition, we were stopping. There was no question. We were supposed to be there.”
A series of very fateful events brought Joyce DeZutti to that Hershey highway that morning. Joyce, a psychiatric nurse at Linden Oaks Hospital, was more than 700 miles away from where she lives and works in Naperville, Illinois. About two months earlier, she was randomly picked out of more than 6,700 entrants as the winner of the California Casualty ‘Give a Nurse a Break Getaway.’ The grand prize was a two-day trip to the Hershey Hotel and Spa in Pennsylvania, a relaxing reward and much-deserved break from the daily grind of nursing. That morning, Joyce was headed back to the airport after a weekend of pampering and relaxation. If things had gone according to plan, Joyce would have missed the accident altogether.
“We wanted to get an early start. So we were really trying to leave. But my friend Andrea does Florence Nightingale presentations and she had her full costume with her and wanted to have pictures taken before we left,” remembers DeZutti. “So we got the pictures and got delayed by quite a bit. By the time we got in the limo, we had been rushed a bit and I was a little upset.”
As it turns out, Joyce DeZutti was exactly where she needed to be at exactly the right time. First responders had yet to arrive at the scene when the limo pulled up to the accident. Joyce, who was supposed to be getting a break from nursing life, suddenly felt herself thrust right back into the action.
“I threw my purse at my older daughter and said, ‘Get my kit out.’ And I ran to the scene, hollering out ‘I’m a nurse and my friend is too,’” says Joyce. After double-checking that someone had already called 911, she ran over to the flipped car. “I could see there was a woman hanging upside-down by her seatbelt. She was awake. I talked to her and said, ‘I’m Joyce and I’m a nurse.’”
The driver, an elderly woman, told Joyce she was having trouble breathing. The car smashed in around her and glass littering the asphalt, her seatbelt and coat making it difficult to breathe. So Joyce crawled in beside her.
“I had no problem getting in to her. I was laying on the ground next to the car with my hand reaching to her. She said she couldn’t breathe, which was no surprise with the angle her head was at,” recalls Joyce. “She had a big, heavy down pink coat, so I unzipped that and pulled her clothes away from her neck and put my hand on her chest and lifted up so she could lift her chin and she could breathe. I held her like that and just talked to her, holding her hand.”
While Joyce was worried about the patient, her daughter Giovanna was standing nearby worrying about her mother. Joyce had severely injured her arms while working with the horses she uses as therapy for her patients. Surgeries over the years had left pins and plates in her arms.
“I knew she could get hurt, too,” says Giovanna. “I have no doubt that if my mom didn’t have this problem with her arm, she could do it just fine because she’s a strong lady- mentally and physically. But I was concerned about her hurting herself and her being home and being in a lot of pain.”
But the adrenaline kept Joyce’s attention away from her own pain and focused on the patient. The woman asked Joyce to call her niece and asked if anyone else was hurt. As Joyce’s daughter Giovanna called the victim’s niece, firemen arrived at the scene. Meanwhile, Skillman, who works as nurse at the VA, explained to Joyce what was unfolding around her.
“It was like a Code Blue situation. Everyone has a job. I look back at what Joyce and I ended up doing, and it was sort of the same thing,” says Skillman. “She was doing the direct care and I was scoping out of the area and letting her know what the firemen were doing.”
A firefighter took Joyce’s place supporting the woman and Joyce slipped back out of the mangled car. But she wasn’t leaving.
“I said ‘I’m going to stay until they get her out of there,’’ remembers DeZutti. “I couldn’t leave not knowing. So I stayed.”
As firefighters used the “Jaws of Life” to cut away the passenger side of the car, a man in his fifties or sixties walked up to Andrea.
“He hands me a card of phone numbers to call and I grabbed the card, thinking they must be the patient’s phone numbers. He said they were and walked away,” says Skillman.
The man was the driver’s son. At the time, no one realized he had actually been in the car at the time of the accident.
“I asked if that was his mother and he said yes and that he was in there. He told me he had a seatbelt on. And a bystander confirmed he had helped get the man out of the car,” says DeZutti. So she went back into nurse mode. “I started talking to him really gently and I told him I was a nurse and wanted to check him. I did a head-to-toe and didn’t find anything tender and everything seemed fine.”
Firefighters put both occupants of the rolled car, the woman and her son, in C-collars on backboards and loaded them into the ambulance. But not before Joyce offered her final words of comfort.
“Joyce said she wanted to talk to her now that she was out of the car,” says Skillman. “But this patient was what my husband, a fireman, calls a ‘load and go.’ You don’t stick around. You put them in the ambulance and take off.”
So Joyce seized her moment, captured in this picture…
Photo Courtesy of Giovanna DeZutti, 2012
“I went to her and told her that her son was okay and that he was going to the hospital also to be checked over,” says DeZutti. “I said we had left messages with her family of where she was going to be.”
Joyce was the perfect person to pull up to the scene. A nurse for more than 30 years, she put herself through school by teaching taught EMTs and worked in a Trauma 1 Center and ICU. But to her daughter, Giovanna, up until that day she’d just been Mom.
“I’ve never seen my mom like that. My mom is my mom. My mom’s not a nurse to me,” says Giovanna. “But it was exciting watching her do it, because I’d never seen her doing anything like that. I’d seen maybe a call or two for a patient who was out of control, but this was totally different. It was a ‘bringing her back to the Emergency Room’ type of thing. She knew exactly what to do and what she was going to do ahead of time if this wasn’t working or that wasn’t working. It all came to her so fast. I could never do that. It was amazing. I see her more of a hero, now that I’ve seen her in action.”
But for Joyce, heroic action like this is the norm. This isn’t even the first time she’s stepped in to help an accident victim. When her kids were young, Joyce stopped to help another woman who was trapped upside-down in a rolled vehicle. She once witnessed a police officer get struck by a vehicle while directing traffic. She stopped to help him, too.
This story says something about nurses. We can try to give them a ‘break’ from their jobs. But stepping in and taking action to save lives is not just a part of their jobs. It’s a part of who they are.
Here’s where we need your help. When Joyce told us her story, we told her we would help her find out what happened to the woman and her son. But without knowing even the woman’s full name, although we believe her first name might be Jane, we’ve been unable to find her and check on her. If you know anyone in Pennsylvania, please pass Joyce’s story along and help us help this hero. After all, we figure it’s the least we can do to say ‘Thank You’ to this heroic nurse, Joyce DeZutti.
Do YOU know a Nurse, Firefighter, EMT, Peace Officer, or Educator Hero? Tell us about them!
To learn more about the Give a Nurse a Break Giveaway, click here.
Pictures from the Accident, The Hershey Spa, and the women in Washington D.C.:
All photos courtesy of Andrea Skillman and Giovanna DeZutti, 2012.
by California Casualty | Firefighters |
It’s almost Thanksgiving!
I don’t know about you, but my visions of Thanksgiving usually look more like this:
Yummmmm.
And hopefully not at all like this…
Yikes.
But the truth is…
Thanksgiving is the leading day of the year for home fires involving cooking equipment.(*)
This year, as we gather to give thanks for our families & blessings, let’s protect those very people & things by practicing safe cooking.
Here are some Tips from the National Fire Protection Association and The Red Cross:
- Never leave the kitchen when you are cooking on the stove top. Unattended cooking causes fires.
- Keep potholders and food wrappers at least 3 feet away from heat sources while cooking
- Stay at home while turkey is cooking and check on its progress frequently
- Keep children at least 3 feet away from the stove, hot foods and hot liquids. Steam or splash from gravy, vegetables or coffee could cause serious burns
- Wear tighter-fitting clothes with shorter sleeves while cooking
- Set timers to keep track of food items that require extended cooking times
- Turn the handles of pots and pans on the stove inward, away from the edge, to avoid accidents
- Follow all manufacturer guidelines regarding the appropriate use of appliances
- Keep the floor clear so you don’t trip over toys, bags or other clutter while walking with hot food
- Keep all knives, sharp cooking utensils, matches and lighters high up, away from the edges of counter tops, to keep kids safe
- Keep electric cords for electric knives, coffee makers, warmers and mixers tucked away- kids can pull on the cords and be harmed by falling equipment or tangled cords could get too close to stove tops or heating plates.
- Test your smoke alarms!
- After guests leave, designate a responsible adult to walk around the home and double check that all candles are extinguished and all cooking or heat sources are turned off
by California Casualty | Nominate a Hero |
“We Protect American Heroes.”
When I first started at California Casualty more than two years ago, this was our new company tagline. Wrapped up in a nice shiny package by an advertising agency, it looked great sitting there under our logo. Every other insurance company had their snazzy marketing hook – the hands, neighbors, and funny reptiles talking about savings—and I figured this was ours. New to this company and our customers, I thought this was just another catchy slogan.
But then I started interacting with our customers on Facebook and Twitter… and everything changed.
I started to hear the stories. Stories about struggling teachers who were paying for resources out of their own pockets because they just couldn’t stomach sacrificing quality education for budget cuts. Stories from nurses worked to the brink of exhaustion who continued to give patients the best care they could. Stories of firefighters who–even while mourning the loss of a brother–continued to follow their fellow firefighters into burning buildings. Stories of peace officers who laid their lives on the line to protect someone they had never even met.
Then the light went on. We’re not just selling car insurance here. We’re playing a small role in making the lives of some very important people better. We’re working hard to take one small thing, one small worry, off their plates. We’re protecting their homes and cars so they can get back to protecting us. Right then, I made it one of my goals to develop a program to reward these Heroes for what they do. More importantly, I wanted to honor them.
That’s why we created the “Nominate a Hero” contest. We envision a platform for people to say “Thank you” to these Heroes we are so honored to serve. On top of that, we wanted to add a chance for one Hero to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip, as a small token of our thanks.
I was a little worried starting out. How could I convince management to pay for this? I admit that I underestimated just how deeply the family culture runs at California Casualty. From the very beginning, every person I shared my vision with was thrilled to have the opportunity to thank our Heroes. Their enthusiasm is truly a testament to the honor and gratitude we derive from serving our customers.
Thank you for everything you do to make our communities better. Please take a moment to check out our contest, and enter as many deserving people as you can think of.
Sincerely,
Scott Randolph
Social Media Manager, California Casualty
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To learn more about Nominate a Hero, or nominate your own hero, click here.
