He was once a vibrant sea-faring man but the Oswald Cadogan you are going to meet in our next story, is a man done in by illness and ill-circumstance. Our team was called out to the area behind the Marine Terminal this morning and found more than just the story of a dying old man, Keith Sift reports on what is one more sign of a city of very slender mercies.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
We found Oswald Cadogan coiled up on the riverside. While he didn't appear near death, he was withered, those around here say the 76 year old had been like this since morning, sitting here almost motionless with his eyes swollen, defecating, and saying few words if any. I tried to talk to the man they call Ozzie. Obviously disoriented, he began the conversation in tears.
Oswald Cadogan,
"Man I just feel exhausted and I went into a doze. That's all I can tell you. Man to be truthful with you, this form which I am under, its not the first time."
That was as much as we got from Ozzie. The rest was garbled. The helpless Ozzie on the riverside is a far cry from the vibrant sea-faring man that those who frequent the marine terminal know. For years he called this tugboat "Pioneer" home with permission from the boat's owner 91-year-old Jack Gill.
Jack Gill,
"He asked me permission to sleep there because he has nowhere to stay so I told him its okay because it doesn't bother me none if he sleeps on the boat. He got a stage where he shouldn't be around, he can't help himself as you can see; he is helpless. Up to yesterday evening the man was walking quite alright up to five o'clock yesterday evening but when I came this morning I went to the boat and he came out and he it looks like he got feeble over night."
Keith Swift,
Have you tried to help him?
Jack Gill,
"If he doesn't want to go I can't take him, he is a big man."
He is a big man but one who needed help which he first refused but accepted the second time around when BERT paramedics arrived. They had the unenviable task of picking up the elderly man, putting him on a stretcher, and rolling him to a waiting ambulance for transportation to a hospital. And as the van sped off, traffic flowed again and life continued in the city.
As mentioned in the story, a BERT ambulance team attempted to transport Cadogan earlier this morning but he refused. BERT cannot transport a patient if he or she refuses. We note that Cadogan's niece was on the scene but because news cameras were there, she left without seeing him. Cadogan has been hospitalized at the KHMH.
