TULSA, Okla. — It’s a jarring job—firefighters repeatedly go from simply eating a meal to saving a life, in seconds.
That’s what happened to station six crews. They were grabbing a meal at Tulsa Hills when someone caught their eye.
“ they thought he was just a friendly citizen, waving at the fire truck,” said Tulsa Fire Captain Greg Tarver. “ as they took a closer look, they noticed he was in medical distress.”
That’s an understatement. The man flagging them down literally had a flag lodged in his head. Another man had stabbed him with the pole after an altercation in front of the Sonic.
“For it to go all the way through his face and skull area, it would take a lot of forced to do that,” said Tarver.
Captain Tarver was part of the second crew to arrive, along with EMSA and police.
“It was very shocking,” he said. “ I have not been to a scene where someone is in that much distress and can still talk to us, I can only imagine what kind of pain he was in.”
Likely losing an eye, the only safe option was to keep the pole where it was.
“We don’t know if it hit vital organs, we don’t know if it would cause more bleeding,” he said. “Removing it would be worse.”
Firefighters carefully used bolt cutters to shorten the 6 foot pole to fit him in the ambulance. Captain Tarver is grateful for camaraderie at the station after traumatic situations.
“We have seen some pretty gruesome things,” he said. “[There is] a lot of leaning on each other.”
While saving lives is the name of the game, this call is not one first responders will likely forget.
Miraculously, they say the victim is expected to survive. His name has not been released.
Clinton, Collins surprisingly didn’t run off after the incident and was arrested on a maiming complaint.
Collins has an extensive criminal history. He has been incarcerated on and off since 1989. He was on probation for several charges when he was arrested Wednesday night.
