Robert O'Donnell

Robert O'Donnell was a paramedic with the Midland Fire Dept. and one of the men who rescued Baby Jessica. He was chosen to wriggle into the rescue shaft because of his wiry frame. It took him two attempts to finally rescue her - the first one was aborted because the hole connecting the rescue shaft to the well was too narrow for him to reach Jessica. O'Donnell was able to touch her leg, but couldn't get a hold of her. He had to come back above ground, empty-handed. After he told the drillers what work had to be done, it was reported that he sat on a curb and wept. On his second attempt, he was able to lube the well with KY Jelly, reach Jessica, and bring her out. He passed her to another paramedic, Steve Forbes, who brought her above ground.

After the rescue, Robert O'Donnell was considered a hero. He was asked for a lot of interviews and made a lot of appearances. There are a lot of things that contributed to the stress of his sudden fame, which are well-covered in Lisa Belkin's article "Death on the CNN Curve" and even better covered in D. Lance Lunsford's book, The Rainbow's Shadow. In the end, it appears he suffered from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, which led him to commit suicide on April 24, 1995, just a few days after the Oklahoma City bombing and less than eight years after he rescued Jessica McClure from the well.

I went to Resthaven Memorial Park today to pay my respects at his grave, which was located next to a mausoleum that was twice the size of my New York apartment. Normally, I would consider it tacky to post a picture of a tombstone on a blog, but there's something on it I think you should pay attention to.


See, if you're following the Baby Jessica story, and if you follow the story of his life, it would seem that O'Donnell's rescue of Jessica McClure was the defining moment of his life. It certainly shaped everything that came after it and ultimately led to him ending his own life. So you would expect to visit his grave and find an Eternal Flame or some sort of hero's tribute. Instead, on his tombstone are cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, a fireman's helmet and the Star of Life, the symbol for emergency medical services. The only other text besides his name and dates of birth and death are the words: "Loving Father."

I like that. It seems like we spend a lot of time in our lives trying prove something to the world, trying to be a hero for someone. In life, everyone's got a Jessica to rescue, and everyone has a well they're trying to get out of, but are those the things that really make up who we are and what our impact is on the world?

Robert O'Donnell was a good paramedic. One time he got a baby out of a well. But I think that, somehow, his life as a father will resonate further into the world than his life as a hero. I just wish that, for his sons' sake, he had stuck around long enough to see just what that impact could be.