ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It was 10 months ago with Richard Sandell killed himself in front of his wife, Diana, after 18 years serving as a firefighter in South Florida.
Looking back, hints of his despair were there, but Diana Sandell didn’t see them at the time.
“All the warning signs were there for PTSD, all the warning signs for depression, all the warning signs for suicide, they were all there,” she said.
Speaking in Orange County Thursday to a room full of firefighters, Diana Sandell remembered the discussions she had with her husband, and how she wished she’d known how to help him.
“We discussed the calls that haunted him,” she said. “(His suicide was) definitely correlated to his job.”
She was speaking on behalf of the newly formed Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative, which has been working to help firefighters deal with the horrors they see on a regular basis.
“We’re bringing education and awareness of cancer, as well as behavioral health to the Central Florida area,” Orange County Fire Rescue Lt. Anthony Willis said.
The group is trying to educate firefighters and their families about the resources that are available to help them get through the tough times.
Diana Sandell wished she’d had the information before her husband took his life and hoped that the group would be able to help families so they didn’t have to go through what hers did.
“In the end, although he saved so many people, he couldn’t save himself,” she said. “And I couldn’t save him either.”
Cox Media Group
