Hurt fireman exits hosp to loving cheers
FIREFIGHTER ROBERT Wiedmann bravely marched out of a Manhattan hospital Friday — three months after suffering burns over half his body in a Brooklyn blaze.
Fdny bag pipers broke out in song and waves of firefighters clapped and cheered as a grinning Wiedmann walked steadily out of New York-presbyterian Hospital / we ill Cornell Medical Center.
Wearing green protective gloves and white bandages on his arms, Wiedmann repeatedly mouthed “thank you” to his Bravest brothers before stepping into a black limo about 1p.m.
“I never thought that I wouldn’t walk out of here one day,” Wiedmann, 38, said earlier, choking up. “It took three months, but I knew that I’d do it.”
Wiedmann, surrounded by his wife and two young children, vowed to do everything in his power to return to THE FDNY.
“I’m trying my damnedest,” he said during a press conference held minutes before he left the hospital.
Wiedmann, who has limited movement in his arms and hands, said he’s especially looking forward to playing with his children — Erin, 8, and Ryan, 12.
“Just having them around me all the time,” said Wiedmann, of Islip Terrace, L.I.
Firefighters said they were in awe of their tough-as-nails colleague.
“He’s the closest thing to Superman I’ve ever seen,” said Capt. Liam flaherty of Rescue company2.
Wiedmann’s brush with death came Dec. 19 while battling a roaring house fire in crown heights.
The 14-year vet was scouring the top floor of the three-story home on Prospect Place — unaware it was vacant — when it erupted into a fireball.
Wiedmann staggered through the thick smoke toward a window, as flames engulfed his body.
In a dramatic scene captured on video, Wiedmann leapt from the window headfirst onto a ladder that firefighters had extended to the window a split-second earlier.
One of Wiedmann’s fellow smoke-eaters grabbed his burning body and pounded on his back to smother the flames.
Wiedmann’s doctor said he suffered burns over 54% of his body. He endured 10 surgeries, all requiring skin grafts, and spent 13 day son a respirator.
Over the next couple of years, Wiedmann will face additional surgeries and grueling physical therapy sessions, Dr. Roger Yurt said.
“He couldn’t be here today without the fortitude he’shad to get him through this,” said Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center.
Wiedmann’s wife, Cathy, said she was overjoyed her husband was coming home.
“It’s a great day,” she said. “It’s been very rough.”
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano praised wiedmann’s courage.
“You’re an inspiration to all of us,” Cassano said.
Firefighter James Gersbeck, 52, also of Rescue Company 2 in Bedford-stuyvesant, suffered severe burns in the fire but was released from the hospital weeks ago.