Rescue in The Tower

JOLIET, ILLINOIS

The life of a diabetic Illinois corrections officer was recently saved when her colleagues — and husband — rescued her from the tower in which she was "trapped."

Rene Fosyth, who works at the Stateville Correctional Center — and is a member of Local 1866 (Council 31) — was alone in a cellblock tower when she began suffering the effects of hypoglycemia (insulin shock): confusion, dizziness and faintness.

When she didn't answer her phone or radio, her husband, Robin — also a CO there — rushed to bring her candy he kept for such emergencies. But she was unable to follow his order to drop the keys to the locked tower from a window.

Rene sank deeper into shock while her colleagues searched for the emergency keys. Other COs desperately made a "ladder" of two bed frames, a chair and a milk crate. The smallest of them clambered up it and was boosted. Then, he leaped toward the tower, caught its steel meshing, pulled himself up and squeezed inside to retrieve the keys. Medical technicians quickly treated the unconscious Rene with glucose, and, after a few heart-stopping minutes, brought her back to consciousness. Watching her sleep at home, her husband wrote later, "I lowered my head and cried like a baby."