PORT ANGELES — Craig Bird shares his story to convey the pain that suicide leaves behind and to thank the emergency responders who saved his son’s organs.
Craig’s tragedy has given new life to people he has never met, which gives him the strength to cope.
His son, Jacob Bird, died this week from a gunshot wound to the head.
He was 16.
The Port Angeles High School junior was mourning the breakup with his girlfriend Monday afternoon.
He drove to Lake Crescent, sent farewell text messages to his family and pulled the trigger at East Beach.
Olympic National Park rangers arrived in time to hear the shot.
“I just want to emphasize how useless [suicide] is and how when kids are feeling like this, they need to just reach out, even to their own buddies, their own friends,” Craig said.
A memorial service for Jacob is planned for Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Port Angeles Moose Lodge, between the Eighth Street bridges at 809 S. Pine St.
“I want kids to know that the system does work and that they can go to the police and go to the liaison at the high school and go to the counselors,” Craig said.
“Things can get accomplished.”
Craig and his 15-year-old daughter, Brandi, can find solace in the fact that Jacob has saved other lives because he was an organ donor.
Park Medic Jennifer Jackson and Ranger John Bowie were dispatched from Barnes Point at about 3 p.m. and immediately switched into first-aid mode when they arrived at the day-use area.
When Craig heard the news, he knew his son probably wouldn’t make it.
“But the fact that they got there at that point in time instead of, say, a half an hour later or something, they were able to keep him going — all his vitals and stuff going,” he said.
Jacob was transferred from Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was kept on life support long enough to save his organs.
Terminally ill patients from as far away as California were rushed in for a second chance at life with Jacob’s healthy heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, bones, tissue — whatever they needed.
“I feel good about that,” Craig said.
“These organs will keep a lot of people alive. And it never would have happened if the system didn’t work like it did.”
Craig praised the work of Olympic National Park Chief Ranger Colin Smith and the other rangers for responding so quickly.
He said his son’s death would have been even more tragic if the organs weren’t saved.
“That’s been a strength,” Craig said.
“That’s kind of what’s keeping me going, I think, is knowing that other people are going to benefit.”
Smith, the ranger who notified Craig, agreed.
“This is a horrible tragedy,” Smith said. “But if anything good came out of it, it’s the idea that his organs helped save another person.”
Smith said the other rangers “all take some solace in the fact that they dealt with it quickly.”
An honor student enrolled at Peninsula College through the Running Start program, Jacob was interested in sports, music and video games.
He was popular in school and didn’t care much for social cliques, his father said.
“He was the kind of guy that people could talk to,” he said. “Kids came to him with their problems for his advice.”
Craig was sitting in a dentist’s chair at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Seattle when he received the phone call from his daughter, Brandi, at about 1 p.m.
She said: “Dad, something’s wrong with Jake. You got to do something,” he recalled.
Jacob had been sending text messages to his close friends and family saying “I love you and I’m sorry.”
“The kids were rightfully concerned, and they went to the police liaison at the high school,” Craig said.
The students informed Port Angeles Police Detective Clay Rife, the school resource officer, who relayed the message to the dispatch center, Smith said.
“They were just all so prompt and so helpful,” Craig said.
“They all did their jobs.”
Port Angeles High School Principal Garry Cameron issued a memo to parents about the tragedy Tuesday.
“We can be proud of the ways in which our students have rallied to be supportive of each other,” Cameron wrote.
The memo included a list of common signs exhibited by grieving students and what to do about it. It was posted on the school’s website, www.portangelesschools.org/pahs.
“Our students are taking it about as well as you could expect,” Cameron said when reached by phone Thursday.
“We had a crisis team here on the 25th.”
Extra counselors were brought to the high school campus to meet with dozens of students both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cameron and school counselor Mike Nolan both said Jacob was a good student and a “great kid.”
Jacob played tennis for the Roughriders and baseball his freshman year.
Craig said his son “liked to whale” on a drum set he received for Christmas.
“He was pretty good,” he said.
Craig is also a guardian for a 16-year-old boy, Mikey, with whom Jacob was close friends.
Jacob’s mother, Lisa Bird, died in a traffic accident on U.S. Highway 101 near the Elwha River in April 2009. The State Patrol at the time said she swerved over an embankment.
Jacob had dated his girlfriend for about eight months before they broke up, Craig said. Jacob had been trying to get back together with her.
“She said she’s done with him or whatever, and he figured he couldn’t live anymore,” Craig said.
Brandi and Mikey reached out to the girl to let her know that it wasn’t her fault. Craig said he would tell her the same thing.
“I know she’s going through a lot,” he said.
“I know it’s not her fault. Nobody could have done anything different from what happened.”
If he has any regrets, Craig said, it’s the fact that he kept guns around the house and taught his kids how to use them.
“With no warning or anything, I was never concerned that one of them would use it on themselves,” he said.
“So I guess I made a big mistake in thinking that something like that wouldn’t happen.”
When enough time has passed, Craig said, he would “definitely” be open to meeting the people whose lives were saved by Jacob’s organs.
“My daughter, especially, wants to know who gets his heart,” Craig said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.