The Right Call: N.S. firefighter seeks treatment for PTSD, shares his journey with peers
After a decade of responding to emergency calls, trauma caught up with Kevin Purchase. Terrible memories started affecting the firefighter's relationships with family and friends.
"I just couldn't shake them anymore," says the 38-year-old who volunteers at the Hammonds Plains, N.S., station.
Purchase grew up in Halifax and says he knew he wanted to be a firefighter after watching the red trucks from the city's West Street station roar past his house.
But last summer, he took leave from the fire department and his day job, as his mental health worsened. The sound of helicopters would trigger his PTSD, reminding him of Life Flight calls.
"I didn't think I was going to come back," says Purchase.
The father of two girls says his coping mechanisms included withdrawing from those he loved and burying his pain with alcohol.
"I just kept running," he says.
But after hitting rock bottom last fall, Kevin's girlfriend Melissa, a military nurse and veteran of three tours of Afghanistan, convinced him to enroll in Project Trauma Support. It's a program for military personnel and first responders in Perth, Ontario.
Purchase says it changed his life, "If it wasn't for that I wouldn’t know what would be going on today."
Earlier this month, on a cool Sunday morning at Dartmouth's Bicentennial Junior High School, Purchase opened up about his mental health struggles in front of a room full of his baseball peers.
"I kinda hit a big low in life," he told a room full of men and women at a local umpiring clinic.
"He was one of the more senior guys when I came to Nova Scotia," says fellow official, Chis Roberts. "Learned a ton from umpiring over the years with Kev."
Purchase has been calling balls and strikes for 26 years.
"I think he's really brave," adds Roberts.
Purchase set his nerves aside, shared his stories and hit the mark. After the clinic, two other umpires reached out to share their own experiences with post traumatic stress disorder.
"And I was like, 'See. You're never alone," says Purchase, who's been back on the fire trucks for a few months.
Now, as another local baseball season approaches, Kevin has a new day job and fresh perspective on life.
"I wake up every morning with a smile on my face," he says, knowing he made the right call.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING NEWS Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Metro Vancouver mayors call for serial killer Robert Pickton to be denied parole
A dozen mayors from around Metro Vancouver say federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Arif Virani should deny parole for notorious B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, and reassess the parole and sentencing system for 'prolific offenders and mass murderers.'