The nightmare began on Feb. 23.
It was a day when a Red Deer family would start working tirelessly with dozens of emergency personnel, all trying to save their loved one’s life.
Kelly Coulter never thought he’d be entangled in a world of RCMP, ambulances, SWAT teams and Victim Services. He didn’t know about the selfless work they often do day in and day out, without receiving public recognition.
But when his 33-year-old son, Chad Coulter, began having severe drug addiction problems, he realized what emergency responders have to deal with on so many levels.
Chad, married with two small children, had been working as a general foreman in Fort McMurray with the hopes of retiring at age 50. To his family and friends, he was simply a wonderful guy.
But his life began to unravel when he starting using cocaine.
On Feb. 23, Kelly Coulter’s wife Gerry, Chad’s mother, dialed 911 after receiving a phone call from her daughter-in-law.
“He was ranting and raving over at his house and (his wife) said we’ve got to get him to the hospital,” said Coulter. “And we had him taken to the psych ward because at that time we didn’t even know he was on drugs.”
Emergency personnel responded on seven different occasions to Chad as he experienced crisis after crisis.
Chad seemed to make it partly through the week and then he’d crash on Sundays. By Mondays, the family was trying to get Chad out of hotel rooms and out of trouble in general.
“He had been in and out of the hospital and the hospital kept letting him out,” said Coulter. “He’d sweet talk his way out.”
One day, Chad pleaded with his parents to visit the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre psychiatric ward because he wanted to go outside for a smoke. He then took off and bought more drugs. At some point, he slit his wrists and “he was going to cut his throat and overdose,” said his father.
Chad had a four-hour standoff with police at the Holiday Inn on 67th Street on March 5. Members of the Emergency Response Team were on hand, plus Red Deer Emergency Services.
Coulter said that his son had taken drugs and drank a “40-pounder of rum” that day. After being arrested, Chad was taken to hospital.
The many Red Deer RCMP, support staff and other emergency personnel never wavered trying to help through Chad’s ordeal over several weeks. As his father says, they went beyond the call of duty.
On numerous occasions, Chad tried to take his own life.
“The support we got from them, I never experienced anything like that in my life,” said Coulter. “The public never gets to realize what these people deal with every day.”
On April 2, Chad shot himself in the head in the front room of his parents’ house, where he was staying. He had been on the phone at about 9:30 a.m. with his wife, who heard the gunshot. Police raced to the home.
Coulter described the large team effort to save his son’s life.
“They closed off Taylor (Drive) so they could get him to the hospital and then STARS flew him to Calgary,” said Coulter. “All the team down there in Pod C intensive care unit (at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre) . . . we were treated like royalty.”
Chad Coulter died at 3:40 a.m. on April 3.
On Monday, funeral services were held for Chad. It was the same day he was supposed to go to drug rehab.
Victim Services and RCMP have checked on the Coulter family since then.
“They’ve been with us every day and they call us,” said Coulter. “We even had the officers here (the other day) and they were there for us and they were crying for us.”
And for this level of support, the Coulter family is truly grateful.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com