Resident, EMS Responders All Smiles

A Week After Near Fatal Yellowjacket Attack

By John Voket

Billy Ross was having a good day Friday, July 15.

He was able to close up his Bethel auto shop early, thinking he might actually have time to cut his lawn before packing up for a relaxing weekend on the family boat with his wife, Carole, who is Newtown’s director of human resources.

So when Mr Ross arrived home to his Fern Drive residence around 3:30 pm, he fired up the lawn mower and got to it. After a few sweeps, however, it became quickly apparent that something was horribly wrong.

“I was feeling good. Got out of work a little early and got the mower going, and then I felt something like an itch on my leg so I just kind of brushed at it,” the Botsford resident recalled. “Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. My leg was covered with yellowjackets. They were all over me trying to crawl down my socks and up the back of my shorts.”

He pushed the mower away and began to run away from the area where the swarm had set upon him, but it was not until he tripped and fell and began rolling on the ground that it seemed the angry stinging wasps finally began to disperse.

“I rolled and rolled and that seemed to do the trick. Then I went inside to get a glass of water,” Mr Ross said. That was when he collapsed on the kitchen floor.

“I remember coming to thinking I could hear the wind blowing, but it was actually the sound of the water still running in the sink,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t doing well. So I moved to the living room, got the phone and sat down in the recliner.”

Mr Ross said at that point he could not see clearly, but somehow managed to punch 911.

As Newtown Emergency Dispatcher John Facto initiated questioning the caller per standard response protocols, Mr Ross said he became increasingly disoriented, finding that he was having a hard time speaking or answering the dispatcher.

“I started talking but was amazed at how little control I had over what I was saying,” Mr Ross said. “I couldn’t get the words out. He was asking my address and age, and then maybe I passed out.”

Help On The Way

While Mr Facto continued trying to get information from his affected caller, he toned out a call for an ambulance crew, a paramedic, and Botsford Fire Rescue as first responders. And luckily, his neighbor and firefighter Jay Nezvesky was just a few blocks away working on his tractor.

“I was in the yard when I heard the call for Botsford so I started heading for my truck,” Mr Nezvesky said. “And when I heard the address, I knew I was one to two minutes away, tops.”

At the same time, Danbury Ambulance paramedic Chris Neary was in the process of returning from another call in the area, and raced to the scene, coincidentally from right in front of the Botsford fire station on South Main Street, approximately 1.5 miles from the Ross residence.

 As Mr Nezvesky pulled up to the house, he saw the lawn mower and assumed whomever it was that made the call got stung after disturbing a nest, and he began canvassing the yard hoping to locate the victim. At the same time, Dispatcher Facto radioed that the victim was on a land line at the residence.

“Sure enough, I went inside and there he was, semiconscious on the couch with the phone propped on his shoulder,” Mr Nezvesky recalled. “Then I realized who it was. About 30 seconds later the paramedic showed up, and I got on the phone and called Carole [Ross].”

Ms Ross said when she connected with Mr Nezvesky, all she could think of was to offer him condolences because he had just lost his father a few days earlier.

“But Jay cut me off and said, ‘Carole, I’m here with your husband.’ And I don’t really remember much after that,” Ms Ross said. By this time Jay’s wife, Maritza Nezvesky, a Botsford firefighter was on scene assisting.

No ‘Epi’ Allowed

While Ms Ross’s recollection of the chain of events is foggy, Paramedic Neary said she was able to inform the responders that Mr Ross had a heart condition, which prevented the use of an Epi-pen filled with an adrenaline shot, which is typically used to stabilize insect sting victims. As his wife sped toward home, Mr Ross was going in and out of consciousness.

“I remember someone was standing over me yelling ‘buddy, buddy.’ And I remember seeing Chris standing in my living room,” Mr Ross said. “Then I remember seeing out the back window of the ambulance as we got on the highway, but I was in and out.”

Once the crew arrived at the hospital, accompanied by Mr Nezvesky’s daughter Kimberly, who is also a volunteer with Botsford Fire Rescue, the staff at the Danbury Hospital Emergency Room took over and a few hours later, Mr Ross was resting comfortably in the intensive care unit.

“I finally started coming out of it around 8:30 Friday night. My wife and kids were there, and the first thing I realized was that I wasn’t fighting to breathe anymore,” Mr Ross said. “I was feeling a lot calmer.”

Looking back on the incident a few days later, Mr Neary said he understood what Mr Ross was going through because he had experienced a similar allergic reaction before. The paramedic, who lives in Ansonia and volunteers for the Oxford and Easton ambulance companies, said the credit should go to everyone involved, from the Nezvesky family who responded from different locations to the scene, to Dispatcher Facto, who juggled the incoherent caller while directing the emergency response, to the rest of the responding ambulance crew and the team at Danbury Hospital.

“This call required a slightly different approach [because of the heart condition],” Mr Neary said. “But we coordinated as a team, everyone worked together seamlessly.”

“These are people who do this for nothing,” Mr Ross added. “And they are experts. Twenty years ago, if this happened, I don’t think I would be around to tell this story.”