Yesterday evening I received a phone call that my son Shea’s name had just “come over the scanner.” (A scanner is a device used to monitor emergency/911 dispatches from the Control Center. When one’s name is mentioned i.e. “comes over the scanner,” it is usually not a good thing.)
Shea had just been down to Buzzy’s Country Store and picked up my granddaughter Lily who had spent the afternoon with me. I called him on his cell phone and was very relieved to find out the following:
On his way home going over the St George’s Island Bridge, Shea saw a jogger collapse onto the guard rail and fall out in the road. He immediately called 911, went to the gentleman’s assistance and began to administer CPR. The EMT, police, fire and rescue personnel arrived shortly and took the gentleman away in the ambulance.
Shea said a policeman then came up to him and said “The good news is you may have saved his life. The bad news is that if he dies we’re going to be interviewing and interrogating you as part of our investigation into it.” Shea, who for various reasons is not unfamiliar with police interrogations, noted “Well goddamn, maybe I should have left him there. Sure hope he lives.”
When all this transpired last evening, Herbie McKay was in the Store. It’s ironic that he was there because something similar happened to him several years ago when he was goose hunting with a coworker on the Eastern Shore.
Reminiscent of the Dick Cheney hunting accident, Herbie’s coworker accidentally shot him in the head when the coworker fired on a goose that had flown in front of Herbie. The buckshot spray from the coworker’s gun hit Herbie in the head and face and a bee bee lodged in his temple.
Herbie was then being treated in the Salisbury Hospital’s ER, when a couple policemen came in to ask him about the accident. Herbie said they began by asking him how well he knew his coworker. Herbie said he had known him for a couple years. They then asked him if he and his coworker got along to which Herbie said “I wouldn’t be hunting with him if I didn’t get along with him.”
Next they asked Herbie if he knew the coworker’s wife and Herbie said he’d met her once or twice. Then one of the policemen did his best Joe Friday by asking “Have you ever had sex with her?” Herbie replied “Hell no!” Herbie said he went onto explain that he knew that they were just doing their jobs but this really was only an accident.
Obviously, however, the police had encountered other hunting accidents that may or may not have been so accidental!
Back to Shea’s rescue, I’ll try and find out today how the jogger is doing and let you know.