Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

It was just another day at work for 35-year-old firefighter Ryan McCuen on February 11. But in that line of work, you never know what you might face.

McCuen responded to a call from a mother, Christy Stone, who was in a desperate situation. The electric company had shut off the family’s power because they were late paying a bill — which had dire circumstances.

Christy and Gus Stone have five children and live in a mobile home in a Detroit suburb. But two of their children, Troy and Tyler, suffer from a debilitating genetic disorder called Duchenne muscular dystrophy. So when the electricity was shut off, young Troy’s ventilator was, too — and the emergency battery power was running low.

“He had about three hours (left) of battery life,” firefighter McCuen told CNN. “He needed to be plugged back in. So it seemed obvious what the solution was: They needed their bill paid.”

And that’s exactly what Ryan McCuen did.

As Christy Stone said to CNN, “Ryan was standing there and he looks at me and goes, ‘I’m going to pay your electric bill,’ and I was just like — are you serious!?”

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Troy Stone, who has difficultly speaking due to his disease, told reporters, “Ryan is my hero.”

The family’s doctor had written a letter to the energy company that said, “There must be electrical power in the home to maintain … life support equipment” — yet the power remained turned off.

“They said it wasn’t the doctor’s signature on it, it was the nurse’s signature on it. So they said it was denied,” said Christy Stone. “How can you deny somebody on life support? So I did everything that I could and they just … it’s just messed up.”

“I just happened to be put in that spot to do what I was supposed to do,” said Ryan McCuen. “I was just doing what you’re supposed to do.” But this was no small act of kindness. The balance of the bill was $1,023.75.

The Stone family has undergone serious financial struggle over the past years in dealing with the disease that affects two of their children. They even started a Go Fund Me page to raise money for a van that will fit both boys’ wheelchairs.

A DTE Energy spokesperson applauded the “firefighter for his actions” and said what happened was “unfortunate.” But the spokesperson declined to comment because of privacy concerns, saying, “We are continuing to work with the family to ensure this situation doesn’t reoccur and have referred their case … to partnering agencies for assistance.”

McCuen, recently married, has a three-month-old daughter, Camilla. His wife, Andrea McCuen, wasn’t shocked by her husband’s generosity.

“I told Camilla, ‘Your dad just helped a family who needed it,'” Andrea McCuen told the cable news channel. “He never surprises me when he does something nice. It’s Ryan.”