New Baltimore Police Chief Suffered Life-Threatening Bee Stings

Chief Tim Wiley is used to responding to emergencies.

But Wiley found himself the center of police, fire and paramedics' attention Friday after experiencing a life-threatening reaction to bee stings.

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The chief, who is severely allergic to bee stings, just finished a plain-clothes surveillance shift when he returned to the police station in the morning. Around 8:30 a.m., he walked outside toward the garage and decided to pick up a grill tarp that had been on the ground for several weeks.

"I shook it to get all the leaves off," Wiley said Saturday of the moment before a volleyball-sized bees' nest fell onto his foot. "They came out attacking and just swarmed.

"It felt like I was just getting hot grease spattered all over me," he said.

The bees stung him from head to toe more than 30 times, drawing the attention of Cadet Nicholas Calandra who helped swat some of them away.

Wiley then grabbed his EpiPen from his office and used it on himself.

He notified his secretary Denise Schultz before falling to the floor.  She called 911. Police Sgts. Michael Mertens and John Willer helped restrain Wiley, who unintentionally began resisting help, while Detective Randy Blackburn ushered in MedStar and Officer Ken Stevens contacted Wiley's family, he said.

"If it wasn't for my staff, I would have been in really bad shape," he said, also crediting Capt. Greg Morabito for coming to his aid at the station.

The reaction was so severe that his airway closed off en route to the McLaren Macomb Hospital in Mount Clemens.

"I actually stopped breathing in the ambulance. They had to bag me," Wiley said, referring to a CPR device.

He spent 10 hours in the emergency room, suffering a setback, and then recovering with help from antibiotics, oxygen, fluids, steroids and Benadryl, he said.

"When I woke up, I didn't know what happened," he said, adding that the last thing he remembered was getting his shot from his office.

He says he's humbled by the situation and grateful for the quick-thinking of others.

"When minutes matter, you like to know you have the type of services we do in New Baltimore," he said.

Morabito said Saturday he received the call at the fire station, finding Wiley coughing violently at the police department, and immediately administered oxygen. 

He said Wiley's actions right after the bee stings helped tremendously.

"A bee sting for someone who is severely allergic could be deadly," Morabito said. "I think the fact that he had given himself his EpiPen saved his own life."

Wiley was out of the hospital Saturday and expected to return to work by Tuesday.