A retired Middletown firefighter and U.S. Marine battled to the end, his mother said.
“He was a fighter,” said Ginger Bruggeman. “He was a Marine and he never gave up. He’d be at death’s door one day and one hour later, he’d be telling jokes.”
Her son, Scott D. Bruggeman, 45, of Middletown, died Monday after battling heart disease for almost two years. He had worked with the Middletown Division of Fire for 20 years, retiring in 2015. He also served his country in the Marine Corps. during The Gulf War.
Bruggeman’s life tragedy turned on March 18, 2014, when he was restraining an uncooperative patient in the Atrium Medical Center emergency room, his mother said. He had a heart attack during the incident, and later was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that affects multiple organs in the body, which started in his lungs and eventually damaged his heart.
“He went downhill from there,” she said.