When the call comes, firefighters always rush in, never quite sure what they’ll encounter. But they always do everything they can to save the day.
Last month, Ryan McCuen from Clinton Township Michigan’s engine number 5, answered a call and found a mother at wit’s end, a bedridden 18-year-old on a ventilator, his emergency battery power soon running out, and electricity to the home cut off by the local power company. So he paid it.
The 18 year old is Troy Stone, who suffers Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He is no longer able to breathe on his own.
Christy Stone, Troy’s mother, said their electric bill has gone up threefold since Troy had a breathing tube inserted. It now takes seven machines, all running on electricity, to keep him alive.
Despite having a letter from their doctor’s office informing DTE Energy that “there must be electrical power in the home to maintain … life support equipment,” the power was still cut off.
McCuen, a 7½ year veteran of the fire department, heard Stone on the phone with DTE and said his choice became clear. “He had about three hours of battery life left and needed to be plugged back in. So the solution seemed obvious; they needed their bill paid. All $1,023.76 of it.
Christy Stone was astonished at the matter-of-factness of this firefighter she didn’t even know.
Troy Stone simply said, “Ryan is my hero.”