BOARD WALK: Lt. Derrick Simpkins prevented a worker from falling off a plank into the waters of Mill Basin. (
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A semiconscious construction worker lay on a narrow board at the edge of a building being erected over the waters of Mill Basin — and Emergency Medical Service Lt. Derrick Simpkins scaled the skeletal structure on ladders, then moved on his hands and knees to get close enough to treat the injured man.
“It was so windy and he was close enough to the edge of that part of the building that was suspended over water that he was in danger of falling,’’ Simpkins recalled about that July 25, 2011, at the site on National Drive.
“We’re going up to get the guy,’’ he told EMT James Hyams. They climbed to the third story lugging their equipment.
“I’m a little scared of heights, but you have to do what you have to do to save someone’s life,’’ Simpkins said.
“Just getting to him was a miracle because things were unstable and the construction workers” would point at areas and say, “ ‘If you walk on that, you fall straight down.’ ’’
Because of the wind, “we walked on our hands and knees on metal and wooden slats to the patient. We realized he had a head injury and a leg injury, so we had to stabilize him.’’
They then got him to the front of the building, where he was transferred onto a firetruck’s bucket and lowered to the ground.
Simpkins was nominated for a New York Post Liberty Medal in the Bravest category by the FDNY.