No Mayor, it wasn’t a dream. The man handling your IV is the firefighter you suspended.
Mayor Debbie Sutherland from City of Bay Village website
This could be my favorite story of the week. You may recall STATter 911 telling you about a dispute in Bay Village, Ohio over fire department budget cuts. Firefighter Ron Westmoreland is suing Bay Village over a three-day suspension by Mayor Debbie Sutherland. The suspension came after Westmoreland complained at a council meeting the cuts may have impacted efforts to save two drowning children.
Mayor Sutherland had a problem Saturday night. Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Michael McIntyre reports in his column that Sutherland passed out because her potassium levels had dropped. Her husband called 911.
Guess who showed up at the mayor’s home? Here’s how McIntyre tells it:
“I have a vague recollection of being lifted,” said the mayor, who is fine now. “Next thing I know, I’m on the gurney in the back of the squad and I open my eyes and look right up at the firefighter I’m locked in battle with.”
That would be firefighter Ron Westmoreland, who complained at a Sept. 15 council meeting that budget cuts may have hampered efforts to rescue two children who drowned off Huntington Beach. Sutherland smacked him with a three-day suspension, saying his comments were “fabricated, insulting and inciteful.” She upheld the suspension earlier this month, just after Westmoreland sued the city in federal court.
“So I closed my eyes and opened them again,” she said. “And he was still there!”
The mayor said she was impressed by Westmoreland’s professionalism and appreciative of the care he gave, inserting an intravenous tube as she was transported to Fairview Hospital, where she was admitted for the night.
“I’m glad it wasn’t Lakewood,” the mayor joked, “because our firefighters union president is also a nurse and he was on duty there at the time.”
Sutherland, who knows how to laugh at irony, thanked the firefighters with doughnuts Friday morning.
