“….Stolowski suffered serious fractures and a severe spinal-cord injury, said Dr. Roger Hartl, his physician. He underwent five surgeries, Hartl said, one to reattach part of his skull….Stolowski’s recovery will consist of exercise and stress counseling and will likely last a year….”
Long Island Newsday-February 22, 2005
The 9-year-old boy watched his uncle carried away from the hospital in a stretcher and called him “very, very brave.”
“I think that he can deal with anything,” Kyle Francheschini said of Firefighter Eugene Stolowski, who was unable to say a single word.
Stolowski was among several firefighters who fled a raging fire through a fourth-floor window in the Bronx last month.
Two lost their lives. Tuesday, about 100 firefighters and friends cheered on Stolowski as he left the burn unit at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Eugene and I feel he is halfway there,” said his wife, Brigid, breaking into tears.
Their children “have been miracles to us,” said Brigid Stolowski, who has a 2-year-old daughter with her husband and is pregnant with twins. “He will be our third miracle.”
Stolowski, 33, was taken to a West Orange, N.J., rehabilitation clinic one month after turning his back on flames and taking a desperate 50-foot plunge.
The air yesterday was tinged with joy and relief, but also sadness for those whose who died that snowy Sunday morning: Lts. Curtis Meyran, 46, and John Bellew, 37. In a separate inferno in Brooklyn, Firefighter Richard Sclafani, 37, also died that day, the worst daily loss for the department since the World Trade Center attack.
“It’s been really rough,” said Joyce Francheschini, Stolowski’s sister. “In the beginning, it was extremely rough, but then once you saw that he was going to survive and all the support that we got … that was really inspiring.”
The early morning fire, started by a faulty heater, began in the third floor of an East Tremont tenement and sent a burst of flames toward the firefighters, who were doing a routine check on the floor above.
Firefighter Jeffrey Cool, 38, left St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx on Friday, still recovering from injuries to his pelvis and a fractured skull.
Probationary Firefighter Brendan Cawley, 31, the only survivor who was able to walk out of the hospital, was released a week after the Jan. 23 fire.
The fourth firefighter, Joseph DiBernardo, 34, remains at the burn unit at Cornell. He is in stable condition and able to speak slowly, a spokeswoman said.
Stolowski suffered serious fractures and a severe spinal-cord injury, said Dr. Roger Hartl, his physician. He underwent five surgeries, Hartl said, one to reattach part of his skull.
Stolowski’s recovery will consist of exercise and stress counseling and will likely last a year, Hartl said.
Stolowski, whose ability to speak is impaired because of a tracheotomy, communicated with visitors through miming and blinking his eyes, relatives said.
He was actively curious about his progress. He told his wife he wants to go play golf with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and eventually have a beer.
“He really is a fighter,” Hartl said. “He wants to recover. He wants to be strong.”