Rescuers Cut Wall to Aid 600-Pound Man

NORTH HOLLYWOOD —  Los Angeles firefighters cut an 8-by-8-foot hole in a bedroom wall of a North Hollywood apartment Thursday morning to rescue a 57-year-old obese man who had trouble breathing.

Responding to a 911 call at about 7 a.m. from the victim, 30 firefighters from the department’s Heavy Rescue Team worked two hours to extricate former Los Angeles radio personality and lawyer John Swaney from his apartment.

Firefighters also removed patio railing and sliding glass doors to reach him. Swaney, thought to weigh more than 600 pounds, was then rolled out on 3-inch-thick sheets of plywood placed on steel pipes, Fire Capt. Daniel McCarty said. Amid a frenzy of TV camera operators and press photographers, about 10 firefighters brought out Swaney on the makeshift wooden stretcher.

“He’s very private. I’m sure he’s annoyed by all this to-do,” said a woman who lives in the building.

Firefighters placed Swaney on a forklift, which took him to an ambulance designed for heavy patients.

Swaney, a former host of talk shows on KFWB-AM, KGIL-AM and KFI-AM radio stations, was taken first to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. A doctor there examined him in the ambulance, then sent Swaney to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Swaney, who is listed in serious but stable condition, is being treated for respiratory problems related to his size, said hospital spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda. Two metal beds were put together to accommodate him, she said.

According to apartment residents, Swaney has lived for more than a decade at the two-story building in the 11200 block of Morrison Street, where he ran a legal services business. He has long been extremely obese, neighbors said, and had not driven his car in years.

A housekeeper brought him food and did shopping, said neighbor Susanna Foster, 74. An agency that brings meals to the homebound also delivered food, said a gardener at the building who declined to give his name.

About a month ago, firefighters helped Swaney’s friends move him to a new bed in his three-bedroom apartment, where he lived alone, McCarty said. Since then the Fire Department had prepared a plan to get him out of the apartment.

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The gardener said that when Swaney was able to walk he used the glass sliding doors to go outside and sit in fresh air.

Other neighbors said they had not seen Swaney out of his apartment recently.

“I don’t think he moved very much,” said one woman who asked not to be named. “He hasn’t been out of his apartment in a long time.”

Swaney had a career in radio, working from 1968 to 1978 at KFWB, and at KGIL from 1986 to 1993. A graduate of Loyola Law School, he practiced law from 1978 to 1986, according to Crys Quimby, news director at KFWB.

“He’s literate, a very fine gentleman,” said Foster, his neighbor. “He has a graceful, resonant voice.”

In a written statement from Quimby, Swaney was described as “one of the brightest news voices ever to hit the airwaves” and as “a pioneer of the all-news format.”

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Times staff writer Joseph Trevino contributed to this story.