Talking A Man Down

It's been a bit since I've written. I just got back from an amazing and much needed vacation with my girlfriend out of the country. I returned back to work on a very gloomy, rainy day-but that's life!

I received a suicidal male call from a 60 year old male who was threatening to kill himself. I arrived on scene and was alerted just before going in from the dispatcher that the male was planning to use his stove to commit suicide. I enter the apartment and observe the gas stove was on filling the air with gas. I talked to the man who said he was very depressed and wanted to talk to someone because he wanted to kill himself. I was more than happy to talk with the man but number one priority was making sure the stove was shut off and potentially dangerous and explosive gas wasn't seeping in.

He agreed to talk in the living room and we turned the gas off and he had a seat. He told me that he just moved to the apartment about six or so months prior and that people were coming to his door at all hours of the night looking to buy drugs and that they were very persistent and even wanting to come in and smoke crack in his living room. He told me he couldn't get a solid night's worth of sleep and that it was literally driving him insane and his apartment complex staff wouldn't do anything to help him. He flat out said the pressure was getting to much and he wanted to light himself on fire.

I asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital and he said he did so he could go and talk to someone about everything going on. Fire and paramedics arrived and found out the male had been prescribed an anti-depressant which the prescription had run out a long time ago. They managed to get him to the hospital and get the gas levels safe in the house. It could have been an explosive situation!