Catching the next wave
Injury doesn't stop paramedic
"Just one more wave," Kevin Mills says to Heather, his wife. He grins and bounds back into the surf.
One wave. Rolling up the Caribbean and on to Cayo Largo, a windy flyspeck off the south coast of Cuba.
One wave. A freaky big one. It spins Kevin, 28, like a toy headfirst to the hard, sandy bottom.
Then he is floating face down in the sea. Helpless as a rag doll.
He knows what has happened to him. He knows what it means. He's seen it happen many times. He's a paramedic.
All he can do is hold his breath and hope. Ten seconds, 20, 30 ...
His sister's fiance, a Mountie, is first to reach him. But a second wave rips them apart and Kevin is back under the foamy surf.
Hold your breath, can't move, hold your breath ...
The Mountie finds him again.
Heather reaches them. She'd been drying her hair on the beach when she heard the cries: "Oh my God, Kevin!"
Heather is a Toronto EMS paramedic, too. So she knows the trouble he's in.
They met in emerg at Scarborough General. Kevin did chinups on a door frame. Heather was a smitten kitten. Their first date was rock climbing. Their son, Evan, is 20 months old.
They're on Cayo Largo for Kevin's sister's wedding. It's a romantic nook of the world, barely 25 by 3 km. Cuba's best beaches, if you ask me.
The rest is reefs and mangroves. A pirate's paradise. A couple of resorts. No permanent residents.
Lovely place for a wedding. Lousy place to become a quadriplegic.
Heather gets Kevin stable, into a bare-bones ambulance and off to the bare-bones clinic. Staff there don't even have cups for water.
Heather talks the Cuban doc into calling a military pal, who sends over a cargo plane.
In Havana, the hospital is out of local anesthetic, so they drill stabilizer screws into Kevin's skull without it. Good grief. Kevin still pales at the memory.
He can't get back to Sunnybrook fast enough.
Best friend Mike Vocilka, 31, also a paramedic, greets him at the airport.
"Quit messing around and get up," Mike tells him.
Kevin pretends to try. "Maybe tomorrow," he grins.
Then it's a blur. A titanium bar connects his spine. Nothing quashes his humour.
At Lyndhurst rehab, a bevy of lady friends comes to visit, massaging his feet and fussing about.
"Dear Penthouse," Kevin deadpans. "I've got five girls in my room and I can't feel a thing."
The docs start off grim. No upper mobility, they predict. Oh, and a breathing tube. Soon they are amazed.
Just 15 weeks after the freak wave -- and here's Kevin wheeling around Cactus Pete's, a sprawling bar on Birchmount at Danforth Rd.
No breathing tube. Kevin used yoga and meditation instead. Heather, 36, even brought in a Buddhist monk.
"He's a strong guy," says Vocilka. "Rock climbing, kayaking, running.
"The paramedic in me says: 'C4 break? Jeez, buddy, you're screwed.' We've all read the textbooks.
"But the friend in me sees the fast progress he's made and the attitude he has and I just can't sell him short."
Progress indeed. C4 has become C6, which means he can wheel a chair. And if willpower alone were enough, Kevin Mills will again be wheeling an ambulance, instead, saving lives and limbs.
"My goal is to get better," says Kevin. "Totally better. No matter how long it takes."
'Til then, he and Heather need to sell their townhouse in Aurora and find wheelchair-friendly digs. Quadriplegia is expensive.
Which brings us back to Cactus Pete's, and one of seven planned fundraisers.
(Donations to the Kevin Mills Recovery Effort can be made at any RBC branch, transit 4030, account 5056817.)
This night, Cactus Pete's is the best place in town to have a heart attack. The place crawls with folks who can revive, stabilize and intubate you.
On stage, Judy Belanger and the I.V. League, a fine paramedics' band, bust out some country.
"Kevin is salt of the earth," says Geoff MacBride, 34, a director of the paramedics union. "And we're all a family, right?"
Seems so. At any rate, Kevin Mills sees himself as a lucky man.
"I have a great life, a wonderful wife and son, a great family and friends. So many wonderful things to enjoy and look forward to."
Will he walk again? Or even pick up his young son?
The textbooks say not bloody likely. But life doesn't always go by the book.
Sometimes it sends a surprise wave your way.
Kevin's colleagues have opened a bank account to collect funds to help cover the costs associated with his recovery. You can make a donation at any
Royal Bank of Canada:
RBC Account Name: Kevin Mills Recovery Effort
RBC Transit #: 4030
RBC Account #: 5056817
Or by cheque to:
Kevin Mills Recovery Effort
c/o Andrew Cairns
115 Richmond Street East
Suite 902
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 3H6
In addition to financial help, it means a lot to Kevin and his family to receive letters of support during this difficult time. They can be reached at: kevinheathermills@gmail.com.
There will be fund raising events arranged in the near future as well so please watch for the notices and help in any way you can. Thank you so much.
Letters to the Editor
Thank you, Mike Strobel, for "Catching the next wave" (May 21) -- concerning Kevin Mills. I had the privilege of having Kevin as a student and as a graduate several years ago. Kevin entered the paramedic program at Humber College as the youngest in his class. He displayed within the first couple of weeks all of the attributes Strobel described. But Kevin is even more. He was an astute and caring student who would hold small group sessions with other students who might be struggling with one or more theoretical or practical areas of content they couldn't seem to wrap their heads (or hands) around. Kevin is a seeker. A seeker never leaves a stone unturned, and never resorts to the phrase "that's good enough." This is a man who displays integrity, ingenuity and insight. Kevin will succeed. He may not succeed in a traditional paramedic role but he has contributions and gifts that must be recognized within the corporation of the Toronto Emergency Services Department. I applaud Strobel's column and Kevin's grit and determination. Kevin holds Humber College's paramedic student record for the 1.8 km run with a time of 5:34. Upon completing, he went back along the course to run with other students who were having trouble with that part of their fitness test. Keep on running Kevin.
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