911 dispatcher was "amazed" man trapped in truck for 6 days in Indiana was still alive
PORTAGE, Ind. (CBS) -- Matt Reum, 27 – the man who was rescued after being trapped for six days in a wrecked pickup truck under I-94 in Northwest Indiana – still has a lot of recovering to do.
But officials at Memorial Hospital in South Bend reported Thursday that Reum's condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.
Reum drove his pickup truck off I-94 near Portage last week, and ended up down a ravine and under a bridge along the rushing Salt Creek. His Ram 1500 pickup truck was smashed and mangled, and he couldn't get out – nor reach his phone to call for help.
CBS 2's Joe Donlon spoke Thursday with the 911 dispatcher who took the call from one of two fishermen who found Reum in the truck – and jumpstarted the rescue effort.
"This one definitely ranks up there as one of the most memorable," said Jeremy Nemeth.
Nemeth has been dispatcher in Porter County, Indiana for 11 years, but he has never had a 911 call quite like the one he got from fisherman Nivardo Delatorre Tuesday afternoon.
"There's a car that's been here since Wednesday, and there is a person inside of it," Delatorre said in the call. "He's still alive, too."
"It's not uncommon to hear strange stories throughout your career in the 911 center," Nemeth told Donlon, "but when he said he's been underneath that bridge six days, that really took me back - and shocked that was the case. I was amazed that he was still alive."
Nemeth couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he has high praise for the two fishermen – Delatorre and his father-in-law, Mario Garcia – who called to help.
"He did phenomenal. They both did phenomenal. We like to call them gold-star callers," said Nemeth. "They were calm. They weren't yelling. They were very calm, and he was giving me information. He was telling me everything that we needed to know."
Nemeth was on the line with the fishermen for almost nine minutes – until first responders arrived. All the while, Nemeth coordinated all the different jurisdictions involved – even the medical helicopter that came to airlift Reum to Memorial Hospital in South Bend.
"I work with some amazing people, and we were all teamed up together to ensure that all the information was passed to everybody; all the coordinating agencies were getting the information and were able to accomplish it," said Nemeth. "We were all just flabbergasted, and just taken aback by it. We all kind of took that breath, going, wow!"
We all know how stressful a dispatcher's job can be. You never know what's coming with each call.
But the end result with this one is something Nemeth will remember for a long time.
"Absolutely. Anytime there's a positive outcome to these calls, it makes us everybody feel great that we were able to accomplish something great and help somebody, and get them the help that they need," Nemeth said. "I'm thankful for my coworkers who all helped us out; thankful for the caller who decided to look for that fishing hole to get him that help. Anytime that we can help somebody, it makes you feel good; makes the job worth it."
Nemeth was glad to her Rehm was doing better Thursday. Meanwhile, CBS 2's Lauren Victory talked Thursday to other first responders from the Portage Fire Department – who filled us in on the chaos and conditions they encountered while trying to free Rehm from his vehicle.
"There was a drainpipe right above him, so there was rainwater coming down when it rained - and he would use his shirt to filter it while he drank it," said Portage firefighter-paramedic Zachary Swets, "and then he also used the airbags that had deployed as blankets when he would get cold, to stay warm and just try and stay alive."
Friends have started an online fundraiser for Rehm. It was up close to $60,000 Thursday night, as people around the country heard about his fascinating story.