It takes a special person not only to do the job of the 911 dispatcher, remaining cool under pressure for 12-hour shifts, but also to accept not knowing what becomes of the people you’re helping after your colleagues arrive on scene and the call ends.
Wednesday afternoon in celebration of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, Porter County E911 dispatchers enjoyed some rare closure with a visit from the survivior of one of the more dramatic emergencies they’ve worked and the men who found him.
Matt Reum, of South Bend, was found by two fishermen under the Salt Creek Bridge on westbound Interstate 80/94 on the afternoon of Dec. 26, 2023, having been pinned by the engine block of his pickup truck for six days.
Mario Garcia, of Hobart, and his son-in-law Nivardo De La Torre, of Portage, saw his barely-visible truck thanks to late-afternoon sun glinting off the metal. Upon closer investigation they found Reum inside and unconscious.
“I just seen the airbag and then I got the chills,” Garcia said. Reum soon woke up and was very happy to see them having survived on water he filtered through a pair of sweatpants as it dripped from a highway drainage pipe just above his sunroof.
De La Torre called 911 and got Porter County E911 Dispatch Supervisor Jeremy Nemeth on the line.
“You were an amazing caller!” Nemeth praised him as De La Torre’s wife, children, and mother-in-law looked on.
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“He used a really revolutionary technology to locate you,” E911 Director Debby Gunn told De La Torre. “It’s called Rapid SOS.”
Reum said he didn’t realize how hard the terrain his truck had rolled down until he visited the site last month. Firefighters had to cut a path through brush to get to him.
“Looking at the pictures and everything, that was a complex rescue,” Nemeth agreed of the scene handled by Portage Police and Fire and Burns Harbor Fire Department.
Nemeth said it was random that he picked up the call that day and everyone in the dispatch center helped out on the call. “It literally takes the whole team to get this accomplished,” he said. “We’re always helping each other out.”
“Jeremy’s a unicorn. Aside from a dispatcher, he’s also a volunteer firefighter,” Gunn said of Nemeth, who was voted Dispatcher of the Year by his peers.
Despite 13 years as a dispatcher and 12 as a volunteer firefighter with the Lakes of the Four Seasons Volunteer Fire Force, Reum’s visit was the first time Nemeth got to follow up with someone he’d assisted. “A lot of calls, we never know what happens in the end,” he said.
While follow-up stories in The Post-Tribune documented Reum’s survival, it was touch and go for a bit following his rescue. “The firefighters, they didn’t think I was going to make it to the hospital once the engine was taken off my legs,” he said.
Reum survived being airlifted and a stay in intensive care that included the amputation of his left leg at the knee. He had 18 breaks to bones of his right hand and had reconstructive surgery last month to repair tears to every ligament in his thumb, as well as muscle tears.
He still has to have a rod in his hand removed, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking up writing. Reum published a book, “Still Standing: The Seven Miracles of Matthew Reum.” That has led to some speaking engagements that have helped fill the days as the former boilermaker ponders a new career.
“Workwise, I can’t physically do like I did before,” said the 28-year-old, who has a long life ahead that he hopes will include the launch of a non-profit to provide prosthetic limbs to the homeless.
“I don’t think anybody can go through something like this and not have an appreciation for life,” he said. And for those who helped save it.
“I don’t think there’s enough ways for languages to say, ‘Thank you,’” Reum said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.