Richard Smith lost his left leg to diabetes a year ago and is starting to feel loss of sensation in his other leg.
At age 72, the retired maintenance worker kept ending up on the floor in his apartment. The 6-foot-1-inch, 230-pound man was too big to lift for his wife, who stands at 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds.
So Geri Smith, 53, would pick up the phone and repeatedly call 911 for help to get her husband back up on his scooter, recliner or bed.
Now, Smith is safe and living at Villa Maria Care Center. His physical therapy and long-term care at the center was navigated for the couple with the help of Brad Chilcote, a Tucson Fire Department firefighter who is a member of Tucson Collaborative Community Care, or TC3.
The department’s pilot program began in November and connects at-risk individuals with social services and health-care services. Fire Capt. Mike Bishop manages the program, and his crew consists of firefighter and emergency medical technician Chilcote and paramedic Sue Rizzi, who both joined Bishop in February. Bishop, a nearly 20-year veteran of the Fire Department, worked the program alone traveling for three months in a red pickup truck going to homes on nonemergency visits with people who were referred to the program by fire crews.