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One of Suffolk Fire and Rescue’s firemen helped a teenage amputee know that he is not alone.

Suffolk Firefighter Chris Heater of Engine 3 B-Shift had a chance to visit 16-year-old Austin Hankins at Inova Medical Center in Fairfax, a volunteer firefighter with Stafford Fire Station 4. Currently enrolled in his high school firefighting program, Hankins aspires to become a career firefighter. Five weeks ago, Hankins was a passenger in a single vehicle accident and has undergone 15 surgeries, becoming a double amputee. 

During a Thursday, Sept. 26 interview, Heater, who is an amputee firefighter, had a chance to share his experience of visiting Hankins and mentoring him to follow his dream while also sharing the future challenges ahead of him. Heater says this started after Hankins’ mother reached out to him via Facebook after discovering his story on Suffolk’s Facebook page.

“[She] kind of gave me a little background of his story and what happened and that he had aspirations to be a fireman. So later on, she told me she reached out to a couple people and I was the only one that actually reached back out to her,” Heater said. “So I told her I would come up, talk to Austin, give him a good sense of hope, because it’s not everyday you meet other amputees that can tell you a little more about what’s going to happen, what’s going on, what’s the process.”

36-year-old Heater, a former U.S. Marine with 14 years of service was injured in a non-combat related injury in 2018, says he was “lucky enough” to have Walter Reed staff and fellow amputees give support during his own process.

“I was telling him, ‘You just kind of start going down a road by yourself and if you don’t have anybody to help you that understands what’s going on, it kind of makes it a little bit more difficult,’” Heater said.

Heater discussed the tips that he gave Hankins, sharing his own life experience and the importance of setting his goals high while still crawling, walking and running towards those goals.

“He is a double amputee, so I told him, ‘Let’s focus on getting you standing, getting you walking.’ My prosthetic company is going to actually help him out and try to get him some prosthetics forward so that he can start walking,” he said. “He just kind of understood, I mean, he was very happy and appreciative that I made the trip to come see him… It was good to help him get more of an understanding of what the road is to come.”

Heater reflected on his own journey after becoming an amputee and his aspirations to become a firefighter. After going on social media and Google, Heater says he found other amputee firemen and reached out to them, where they gave him support. After linking up with an amputee fireman in Northern Virginia who was injured on the job and receiving advice, Heater moved forward through the SFR Academy, which led him to become a Suffolk Fire and Rescue Firefighter despite his injury. Heater expressed the importance of continuing to push through despite the disadvantages.

“My training was the same as the guy next to me with two limbs, and that’s like the same thing I told Austin. You’re not going to get any favoritism, and that was my biggest thing is I didn’t want any favoritism and nothing like that,” Heater said. 

“And that’s the same I was telling Austin is you just gotta keep pushing and you got to remember that the expectation in the Fire Academy and the Fire Department and stuff like this when you chose this career is, you got to be as good or better than the guy next to you with both his legs.”

He continued.

“Because, during any type of evolution training, real fire, whatever the situation that’s going on, you can’t be the guy that’s ‘Well, my leg,’ you can’t use it as an excuse,” Heater said. “… You got to be better than the guy next to you every time because at the end of the day, you are set with a disadvantage.”

In a message to fellow amputees, Heater shared what he told Hankins:

“Whatever you are facing, you can change it. You can get up and get moving and that was kind of my biggest thing with Austin was telling him and why I decided to go up there and really talk to him because, I had other amputees talk to me when I first became an amputee at Walter Reed and stuff. And it was just like, ‘Ok, you guys can help me and I can help other people,’” Heater said. “So it’s really just painting it forward to other amputees, because people that aren’t amputees don’t understand what amputees are going through. They don’t understand about the phantom pains, they don’t understand about you’re not going to be out here doing what you were doing with two legs. It’s just, you got to learn to adapt and overcome and if I can help somebody, I am willing to help them.”

To visit Hankins’ GoFundMe, go to gofund.me/4a531f71. To visit his recovery page, “Austin’s Journey,” go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/1197684638216375/.