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A firefighter who jumped from a burning Bronx building earlier this year thanks the medical team that saved his life.
Firefighter Eugene Stolowski returned to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Hospital Monday to thank the staff. Stolowski underwent several emergency surgeries there, including one to repair a broken neck.
Stolowski also thanked the staff at the Kessler Institute in West Orange, New Jersey, where he is still undergoing rehabilitation.
“I really have to thank everybody here for their support, and the doctors for what they’ve done for me, and the Fire Department and my family, and my company, of course - Ladder 27, Engine 46 has been wonderful - my stepfather, my brother, everybody," an emotional Stolowski said at a press conference this afternoon.
Stolowski was injured in a January 23rd blaze when he and five other firefighters were trapped in a burning apartment on East 178th Street in Mount Hope and forced to jump. Lieutenant Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew were killed in the fall. The other four firefighters were seriously injured.
Stolowski was given a 30 percent chance of walking again. But as he fought his way through painful surgeries and countless hours of physical rehabilitation, he says he never lost hope.
“I've had no doubt since day one, even when I couldn't move anything, that I would have the determination to walk again,” said the firefighter.
His doctors also had high praise for their determined patient.
“I would like to train him as a neurosurgeon now,” said one. “With his spirit, that is what we need,” said Dr. Roger Hartl.
But Stolowski says his love for his old career remains unshakeable.
“I would go back today and fight fires again,” he told reporters. “After all that happened to me, I would fight fires again in a second. I love that job. I know I can't do it again, but my family is there and I have to be there for them.”
Stolowski's wife Bridget gave birth to twins while he was in the hospital.
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