A former Minnesota firefighter now lives in a barn with his family so he can afford to pay medical bills for the injuries he suffered on the job.
Retired St. Paul Fire Captain Thomas Bever, a former captain and top recruit, shared his story with Liz Collin on her podcast.
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Bever served the city of St. Paul for a dozen years in total. In 2020, during the peak of the COVID mandates in Minnesota, he fell from a ladder while fighting a fire. What happened in the years that followed would ultimately force him from the job he loved as part of the seemingly never-ending fallout from the COVID tyranny of Gov. Tim Walz.
“We were fighting a commercial fire and I fell from the ladder. It was icy. I was working the Delta Division as command and I wasn’t able to leave the fire so I got hurt around midnight and worked the rest of my shift until 8 a.m.,” Bever told Collin.
“I wanted to go to the closest hospital. We had lots of them in St. Paul, but unfortunately because of COVID, they were on divert. So I ended up going to a Woodbury emergency room and when I got there, I still had my jumpsuit and smelled of smoke and fire—and they turned me away,” he said.
“I was kind of shocked by that. So I had to call my chief and explain what was happening and he called and told them, ‘Hey, this guy literally just got hurt in the line of duty. You need to help him,’” Bever added.
He explained how being turned away, being denied help, defined what he was to face for years to come, as he said, “that kind of has been the beginning and mantra of my story. It’s just been head scratchers one after another.”
Once he was finally allowed into the hospital for treatment, Bever recalled how “they were only able to help me with a couple of the problems that I had. They did some x-rays of my knee. The meniscus in my knee was torn in half. My shoulder rotator cuff was torn in half. I had back pain. My whole right side basically slammed into the pavement and I was in a lot of pain.”
“They did an emergency surgery and they scoped my knee, shot my shoulder with cortisone and sent me to a pain clinic for my back and hip pain that I had. I was back at work in six months,” Bever said.
Bever also told Collin about how it was a serious fall, and that he needed more surgeries, but they were deemed “elective” at the time due to COVID mandates.
“Due to the mandates that the state of Minnesota and Walz put through, they deemed my surgeries electives. I remember getting letters saying your surgeries are denied, that they’re elective operations,” Bever recalled.
Eventually, the complications and lack of thorough treatment took a toll on him. Bever told Collin how he “was working as a career firefighter, continually just damaging my body. It got to the point when I was doing a rescue, it was a car versus train. I pulled a guy from the car—and he was over 300 pounds and like 6’5”—and when I did that, I felt more popping in my back and my leg was numb.”
Bever, who still has his arm in a sling, basically worked through the pain for two more years.
He was a firefighter. However, he would soon be facing another kind of fight with never-ending bureaucracy: “I had to fight every step of the way for any type of treatment. It got to the point where I ended up obtaining a lawyer.”
“I was just dumbfounded. I couldn’t understand, you know, I got hurt in the line of duty. I should be taken care of—it’s not like I was playing basketball. I was saving lives and protecting houses and buildings and got hurt while doing that,” Bever said.
“I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that and when I got these denial letters,” he added.
Bever said he went on to have more than 400 medical appointments and multiple surgeries. According to the paperwork, his injuries have been proven to be work-related injuries.
In October of 2024 he was forced to retire with a medical disability. But with just 30% of his pension, Bever said he and his family have been forced to make some drastic life changes.
“When I got injured, I mean, it took all of my income away from me … Then to know that if I want to have surgeries, I have to pay for it out of pocket, it’s just a slap in the face,” he said.
“Something’s just significantly wrong in this system. It’s just broken and it keeps you broken,” Bever continued, breaking down in tears during the interview.
“You just shake your head because you just don’t understand. What did I — you feel like you did something wrong and you’re being punished for it,” he said.
“Why does that person get gender reassignment surgery, but I got hurt in the line of duty and I can’t get a shoulder operation or a knee surgery and I have to fight for that?” he asked. “And then on top of it, if I want it, I have to pay for it. Like that’s wrong.”
Bever’s family was forced to sell their home. They now live in a barn to get by.
“It’s hard to ask for help … we sold our house to help alleviate some other bills because you don’t expect for something like this to happen … It’s really been difficult,” Bever said.
On a GoFundMe page set up to help the family, Bever wrote: “This has been the most difficult challenge I have ever faced, the loss of a career I loved, and the city I thought would take care of me, has put my family in financial ruin.”
For Bever, however, the worst of it seems to be the political reality of it all: “It’s become very clear to me that this state is corrupt on so many levels,” he said.
“It’s no wonder to me why the volunteer levels of firefighters and police officers and the ranks are shrinking when the state and city doesn’t have your back,” he commented. “Why would you do one of the most dangerous jobs or professions out there? I know people want to serve, but it’s like suicide. Why would you do it?”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” and “Minnesota v We the People.”
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