A Holiday Hero

On this New Year's Eve Eve, I thought I'd tell you a crazy story from Christmas Eve Eve...

My brother Pat lives out of town, so while visiting for the holidays he and his wife, as well as their 2 beagles stayed with me. However, he ended up spending the night at my parents' house most nights, since that is where the festivities were held...and drinking and driving do NOT mix.

On Christmas Eve Eve (December 23rd), Pat decided to make his way back to Midtown and sleep at our house. Katie and I had 3 Christmas parties to attend, so we were out quite late (2:30am) and Pat ended up beating us home by about 15 minutes. He let his dogs out in the backyard, and they went crazy...howling up a storm. It could have been a squirrel or a neighborhood cat that they were after, but Pat could not get them to shut up or come inside. That's when he heard a man's voice calling out, "Can you help me?!"

Now remember, it was 2:15am and this is not Pat's house, neighborhood, or even current home state. Our backyard butts up to an alley so the voice very well could have been coming from there. After a quick look around, Pat saw that our neighbor's garage door was open and there was a man lying in the doorway.

Pat thought fast and called me to find out my elderly neighbor's name (we'll call him Fred.) He cautiously made his way into my neighbor's yard and called out, "Fred, is that you?" (He was worried that Fred was being robbed.) Fred replied something along the lines of, "I don't know." Pat asked him if he lived there and, again, Fred said "I don't know."

As Pat approached the garage, he saw that Fred's hands were bloody, there was blood all over the side of his car, and he was not wearing shoes, gloves, or a coat (although they were all in the garage with him.) He called 911 but had to run to the front of the house to get the address. When he returned, Fred was complaining of being cold so Pat covered him with his coat (it was about 30F and snowy.) Pat asked Fred questions, but he was clearly unaware of who he was, where he was, or what was going on. He waited with him until the paramedics arrived, and they were loading Fred into the ambulance when we pulled up. The paramedics thanked my brother and shook his hand before they pulled away.

The next day, we got word that Fred was doing well and would hopefully be home the following day (Christmas Day.) We have no idea how long Fred was lying in his garage, but were told that his core temperature was 89F when he arrived at the hospital. That is deathly low.

I am so glad that Pat (and his dogs) decided to sleep at our house that night. There is no telling if Katie or I would have heard Fred calling out for help. And although Stella does bark, she doesn't make the kind of alarming ruckus that 2 beagles can.

I think it's safe to say that Pat saved Fred's life that night.