Calm seas: How a fishing charter helps Chicago’s first responders cope with PTSD
CHICAGO — On a recent, beautiful June day in Lake Michigan, several first responders set sail on a Thin Blue Line Fishing charter.
The excursion was seriously mission critical but full of lots of laughs and hopes for lots of fish.
The charter is a recipe to help to alleviate PTSD and free of charge for those who have paid much already.
The invited guests on the trip include some of Chicago’s finest: Chicago police officers Fernanda Ballesteros and Carlos Yanez as well as one-time Office of Emergency Management and Communications dispatcher Keith Thornton.
Ballesteros was shot while conducting a traffic stop in 2022. Yanez was also shot on duty while making a traffic stop in 2021. His partner, Officer Ella French, was shot and killed.
Thornton fielded the French/Yanez call for help after both had been shot.
Each of them still is grappling to one degree or other by those traumatic events.
It was the boat’s captain, Ernesto Amparan, who conceived of this outing. He believes that several hours on the water can help wash away some of the blues. Amparan is a retired CPD officer himself.
“I’ve gone through a lot. I’ve been in responder for over 20 years,” he said. “So I’ve seen my share of things. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost you know coworkers. … So it takes a toll on one’s mental well-being. … Our daily lives are impacted. Our families’ lives are impacted. This is something we obviously all signed up for, we understand that the consequences, we understand everything that comes with the job.”
Ballesteros’ partner drove her to the hospital after the shooting and most likely saved her life. She is thankful to have survived and has her vision back, too.
“Thank God I got my vision back,” she said. “(I am) one hundred percent grateful for that.”
Yanez, assisted by a walker, was among the first to greet her as she left the University of Chicago Medical Center. He was shot several times, lost an eye, walks with a gate and still has bullet below his right ear where a bullet remains. French’s memory remains in his heart and soul as well. He says he thinks of French every day.
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Thornton left policing to become a dispatcher, thinking it would be less stressful. He has total recall of that fateful summer day and readily admits he was wrong about the less stress thing.
“I thought it would be a bit easier behind the computer screen. It’s even harder, especially when you’ve done it before and you know the lifestyle that officers go through, in particular here in Chicago,” he said. “So being able to hear ‘officer down’ times two and you know that (someone is possibly) dead. I can’t be out there to help them, and you’re just hearing a bunch of other backing officers who want to save their life, but they’re just narrowminded and going crazy as well. It really sends your mind just through a ton of emotions.”
Talk therapy is not what you will find on the water on this trip. It was just time to taking things lightly and have fun. A time where the heaviest things is landing that big fish, and perhaps for a time a horizon that is a little brighter.
Ballesteros is happy to be back on the job. Her mom does not echo those feelings.
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“My mom doesn’t like it, telling me to stop being a police officer and go back to what I initially was going to be, a nurse,” she said. “But that’s not what I want I wanted to do. It’s not my passion.”
Yanez is on permanent disability and misses the job.
“I love the job. I miss it every day. I would give anything to be back in the squad car with my brothers and sisters,” he said. “It was doing what I love to do, protecting the community.”
Thornton has moved on to private security.
Thin Blue Line Fishing charter is online at ThinBlueLineFishingLLC.com and on Facebook at /ThinBlueLineFishingLLC
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