A Florida first responder who has suffered from PTSD since the Orlando massacre is down to “only a few hundred dollars” and can no longer afford treatment, according to wife.
Gerry Realin helped remove bodies from Pulse nightclub the morning 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded in America’s deadliest ever mass shooting.
The 37-year-old father of two has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, but has canceled doctor appointments after his department said he ran out of personal leave.
“It’s hard to believe,” his wife Jessica Realin, her voice breaking with emotion, told the Daily News Wednesday.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Realin said her husband received a letter from the Orlando Police on Monday, the day before PTSD Awareness Day, saying that the disability committee that has been paying him stopped as of June 22.
She said that her family, which she said has no savings, is living by conserving her husband’s paycheck from last week, and cannot afford the co-pays for doctors visits.
She and her husband have already begun selling items in their home, including a TV.
When asked about their alleged cruelty, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said in a statement to The News that “the City of Orlando has supported Officer Realin by insuring that he received full pay through the interim disability committee, whose ability to reimburse officers is limited by policies and procedures, and in Officer Realin’s case, those limits have been met.”
A City of Orlando spokeswoman referred The News to the police statement.
The end of disability payments is the latest blow in the Realin family’s efforts to find financial security after Pulse, which left its breadwinner with the unseen pain of nightmares and flashbacks.
Orlando threatened to fire its worker for insubordination in March, when it claimed that his doctor said he could work in a “limited duty status” and tried to assign him to an administrative position.
Orlando Police said Wednesday that they “took into account his doctor’s recommendations and made numerous, appropriate, alternative jobs available to Officer Realin, in areas throughout the City of Orlando” but did not elaborate on the positions.
However, Realin said that his doctor never told him he could return to work, and his family challenges the police to produce evidence that he had.
The department also said Wednesday that Realin still had access to an assistance program with counseling and a PTSD program, though his wife said the program at University of Central Florida told him he was not a good candidate because of the unique type of trauma he experienced working in the aftermath at Pulse.
His family has hopes he will be granted a disability pension by an independent board. It is not known when the board could make a decision on his case that would end the uncertainty.
The Realins have been supported in part in the past by asking the community for help, with a GoFundMe started last year having raised more than $9,000 in 10 months.
However, that money did not last long, and Jessica Realin said her young daughter and son were born with a lung disease.
Beyond hoping for a disability pension, Realin’s family has also pushed for a change to Florida law that would allow PTSD to be included under workers’ compensation laws, which currently only covers physical injuries.
The bill was approved by a committee but was ultimately not brought for a vote in the Florida legislature this past session.
Jessica Realin said other first responders to tragedies such as Pulse are also experiencing PTSD, but that “they see what we’re going through and they’re suffering in silence.”
Realin is not the first officer to have to confront their own department after going to the front lines of mass shootings in America.
Newton, Conn., officer Thomas Bean faced firing for not returning to work in the months after the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012, though his bosses backed off the plan after national outrage.
In 2015 a Connecticut arbitration board ruled that he had to be paid half of his salary until his retirement for long-term disability.
