PTSD Alarm Bell: Firefighter Thought He Had to Suffer in Silence

PTSD: A firefighter’s story
Journal Times
By Stephanie Jones
September 6, 2015

But the lives saved are harder to concentrate on, Jorgensen said. It’s the losses that he has played over and over again in his head.

Bob Jorgensen, a former South Shore Fire lieutenant, said he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after his years with the South Shore Fire Department. He's shown here with his old helmet and the fireman's axe he was presented upon his retirement.

Photo by Scott Anderson

RACINE — It was close to Christmas, nearly 21 years ago, when Bob Jorgensen responded to a call for an accident on Highway 31.

“When we arrived, I was handed the 8-year-old child,” he said.

He watched as the boy’s eyes fluttered every time he squeezed his oxygen bag.

The boy didn’t make it, said Jorgensen, 56, who lives in West Racine and retired from South Shore Fire Department in 2012.

It’s a call that still haunts him. It took him more than a decade and a trip to the hospital in handcuffs to realize the truth: He had post-traumatic stress disorder.

He is sharing his story in hopes of preventing others from going through what he did.

“We were supposed to handle everything,” he said. So instead of talking about it, he tried to cope in silence.
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