Talk Bronx New York

In ‘911: The Bronx,’ Reality TV Gets Tough

 

Gritty ‘911: The Bronx’ takes Discovery Channel in a new direction.

A man who survived a fall is stabilized in the ER on ‘911: The Bronx.’

Real life washes up in the emergency room.

For camera crews shooting Discovery Channel’s “911: The Bronx” in the emergency room at St. Barnabas Hospital in the South Bronx, that real life includes gunshot wounds, a severe head injury to a man who jumped out of a window and a 12-year-old hit by a car and left with a mangled foot.

“When human beings get into trouble, they really get into trouble,” said Paul Gasek, the show’s executive producer and the senior science editor at Discovery. “These people are right at death’s door. This is the portal; the doctors are the gatekeepers.”

The show follows the staff of the emergency room as they grapple with a slew of patients. Some have been rushed to the hospital by ambulance, others simply walk in.

The program was shot last summer at St. Barnabas, a teaching hospital that cooperated on the production. Laws limiting the release of patient information made the work a bit of a challenge. After segments were filmed, the producers had to get permission to use them. Some people didn’t want their stories told.

“We shot an enormous amount of footage,” Gasek said. “But not all the stories panned out. Not all the people agreed to be on. We shot a number of stories that never made it to air, which we destroyed.”

Gasek admitted the show was a hard sell at the channel. There were questions about whether a gritty, sometimes gory, series fit in with the Discovery brand.

“This is not a medical show,” Gasek said. “It’s a reality show set in a hospital. We have heroes. We have real-life scenarios.”

In the first episode, one patient is the man who fell four stories, landing on his head. Another is a guy who sliced his finger on a meat cutter. Another is a pregnant woman with a broken arm. One of the most dramatic stories, however, is about a kid hit by a car. He keeps asking the staff if he’s going to die.

As of now, there are no plans to produce more than the six episodes available. Discovery will air three back-to-back, hour-long episodes tomorrow.

“There’s a little bit of uncertainty about whether they’ll [viewers] respond or not,” Gasek said. “If they tune in, they’ll have trouble turning away.

“This is really just about being in the hallway, being in the room. This is what you’ll see when there,” he said. “It’s visceral - I hope it’s not too visceral. I’m hoping people will respond.”

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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A Bronx Family Struggles To Survive Financially & In Heath

“For now,” Ms. Santiago said.

“The mortgage company owns it,” her husband added.

“Right now,” Ms. Santiago, 48, said, “we’re practically out the door.”

Their two-family home, in the Bronx’s Little Italy, is sparsely furnished, with a folding table and chairs in the dining room. A picture taken on their wedding day hangs high on the wall.

The Santiagos have two sons at home, Timothy, 16, and Nicholas, 20; and twin granddaughters, Tiffanie and Stephanie Caprio, 14, whose mother is unable to care for them.

For 23 years, Mr. Santiago, 58, has worked at a Bronx car service as a manager and dispatcher. Until last summer, he was earning $635 a week.

They bought their house for $155,000 in 1998, using $20,000 in savings as a down payment. Their mortgage payments started at about $1,000 a month, but over the years, in the thrill of first-time homeownership, the Santiagos made some refinancing decisions they now regret. Their monthly payments swelled to $3,599, they said. The family was living paycheck to paycheck, but they were making it.

Then, last year, Mr. Santiago had a heart attack.

“It wasn’t a real big heart attack where I fell on the floor,” he said. “It was just a lot of chest pains that wouldn’t go away. I thought it was heartburn.”

On July 2, he drove himself to St. Barnabas Hospital.

Later that day, he was transferred by ambulance to Montefiore Medical Center. Three days later, he had surgery to unblock a clogged artery.

Recovery took almost four months, and during that time Mr. Santiago could not work. Ms. Santiago does not work: She has epilepsy, and her seizures are not well controlled by medication. She cares for her husband at home.

While he was hospitalized, Mr. Santiago learned that he had diabetes. He has a fear of needles, so his wife gives him his daily insulin injections, as he looks away.

“I tried letting him do it himself and he got upset,” she said. “He wouldn’t do it.”

The family income shrank to $340 a month in disability payments. The Santiagos soon exhausted their savings and fell behind on their mortgage payments and other bills.

Mr. Santiago returned to work at the end of October. By then, they owed about $14,000 in mortgage payments and had received a notice of foreclosure. Mr. Santiago is not strong enough to resume all of his previous duties, and now works four days a week as a dispatcher, earning $350.

Their monthly income is supplemented by $1,646 collected from two tenants who rent parts of the house. They also receive $772 in food stamps each month.

With Mr. Santiago back at work, they were able to resume making mortgage payments. For help with bills, they turned to the Children’s Aid Society, one of seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

In the fall, $1,388.51 in Neediest Cases money covered the family’s $910.82 Con Edison bill and a $477.69 water bill. “That was a great help because I didn’t have the money,” Mr. Santiago said.

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Highway officer looks at demolished sport-utility vehicle.

The driver of an SUV was killed when the vehicle plunged over a guardrail and landed on the Cross Bronx Expressway, near University Avenue.

SUV Plunges Over Guardrail Killing Driver On Cross Bronx Expressway

1/26/2008

A dramatic early morning crash sent a sport-utility vehicle hurtling off a bridge and onto the Cross Bronx Expressway, killing the driver, cops said.

The vehicle struck a guardrail on the 181st St. Bridge around 4:50 a.m. and plunged about 60 feet onto the eastbound expressway.

The SUV landed on its side in a mangled heap. Rescue workers extricated the unidentified driver, who was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.

Part of the railing also crashed onto the expressway and slammed into a car driven by 49-year-old Gabriel Nieves, who was driving his elderly parents to JFK Airport.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a car coming pretty fast,” said Nieves, manager of a Pathmark in Rockland County. “It punched the railing. It just about took my car out.”

The railing punctured his front passenger tire and ripped off his front bumper, causing his parents to miss their flight.

“The railing came out like a spear,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was something like out of the movies.”

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.

Nieves said a friend of the dead driver was behind the doomed vehicle and remained at the scene, appearing intoxicated.

“I asked the girl if she was all right. She said, ‘Oh my God, that was my friend. We were just celebrating my birthday,’ ” Nieves said.

SOURCE: NYDailyNews.com

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Chase In The Bronx Leads To Shooting..

In the ninth shooting to involve police during the first seven days of 2008, police officers shot and wounded an unarmed suspect who led them on a car chase through the Bronx yesterday, police officials said.

The confrontation happened at about 11:30 a.m., as plainclothes anti-crime officers on patrol attempted to stop the suspect as he was driving near Jerome Avenue and Kingsbridge Road, police said. The suspect fled in his car as the officers approached, prompting them to jump in their unmarked car and give chase, police said.

After the suspect’s vehicle became stuck in traffic near West Kingsbridge Road and Aqueduct Avenue, about three blocks away, police tried to stop him again. According to police officials, the officers approached the vehicle and demanded to see the suspect’s identification.

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Bronx Baby Wounded In Hail of Gunfire

A 3-year-old girl was struck by a stray bullet after getting caught in a barrage of gunfire last night in the Bronx while riding in a car with her mom’s boyfriend, cops said.

The car was at a stop sign at Tiebout Ave. and 184th St. around 5:20 p.m. when a bullet grazed the tot’s left shoulder, cops said. She was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital. Her condition wasn’t available last night.

Witnesses said a black car had pulled up and 10 to 15 shots were fired at a person standing on the corner.

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