Injured firefighter Wiedmann returns home

Three months after half his body was badly burned, New York City firefighter Robert Wiedmann returned home Friday to Long Island -- receiving a hero's welcome every step of the way.

His arms still wrapped in bandages, Wiedmann, 38, walked out of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's burn unit accompanied by drums and bagpipes. Dozens of firefighters in dress uniform applauded him.

As he rode home to Islip Terrace in a black limousine with a State Police escort, fire trucks on the Southern State Highway crossed ladders in salute atop several overpasses.

Outside the family's home, several hundred people, many of them fellow firefighters, were waiting.

People cheered as the limo pulled up, Wiedmann waving from the window, a therapeutic glove with neon-green fingertips on his injured hand.

He stepped from the car with a big smile, wearing a blue department T-shirt.

"It's great to be home," the father of two -- Ryan, 12, and Erin, 9 -- said as he hugged one supporter after another.

"The best thing is just having him home, where we can be a family," said Wiedmann's wife, Cathy. "Just being a family again."

A 14-year veteran assigned to Rescue Company No. 2 in Brooklyn, Wiedmann was critically burned Dec. 19 when hot gases from a fire exploded as he and another firefighter searched a residential building near Prospect Park.

The other firefighter, James Gersbeck, 52, formerly of Port Jefferson Station, also was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He was released earlier, officials said.

Wiedmann still faces an arduous road to recovery.

He's had 10 operations, and eight to 10 more will be needed in the near future, including painful skin grafts, said one of his doctors, Roger W. Yurt.

While Wiedmann said he's "trying my damnedest" to return to work, Yurt said it might take as long as a year to know if that's even possible.

Yurt, director of the Hearst Burn Center at Weill Cornell, said the survival chances for burn patients is assessed like this: The percentage of body burned plus the age of the patient equals the mortality rate.

Doctors said about 54 percent of Wiedmann's body was burned, with some of the worst damage to his hands and arms. The initial prognosis wasn't good.

"He has done much better than we anticipated," Yurt acknowledged Friday.

Outside the Wiedmann home, Paul McFadden, a retired lieutenant from Rescue 2, called it a "happy day."

"He was burned very, very badly," McFadden said. "To see him come home after just a couple of months, it's wonderful."

Sayville firefighter Steve Panasuk didn't need to know Wiedmann to drop everything and attend the homecoming.

"When anyone gets hurt, we all show up in force in support. It's a brotherhood," Panasuk said.

In late January, the Syosset Fire Department ran a blood drive that collected 112 pints for the injured firefighter. At that time, Wiedmann's father, Bob Wiedmann, 68, of Baldwin, said there had been many blood drives in the metropolitan area to help his son.

Wiedmann's mother, Irene, said she was glad his children could be around their father again. Looking at the crowd, she said, "The shows of support are really what chokes you up."

The soft-spoken Wiedmann said he never doubted that he'd survive and return home to his family.

"I never thought I wouldn't walk out of here one day," he said as he left the hospital. "It took three months, but I did it."

With Igor Kossov