Dr. Oz to the Rescue! TV Doctor Quick on Scene at Horrific NYC Accident
He doesn't just talk the talk … he walks the walk!
Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the very popular syndicated TV program "The Dr. Oz Show," jumped into action when a terrible car accident just outside of his Rockefeller Center offices left a woman horribly injured.
According to New York City's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, a speeding taxicab jumped the curb at the corner of 49th Street and 6th Avenue at 11:19 a.m. ET Tuesday morning, injuring two people; a 40-year-old male cyclist who was thrown about 15 feet, and also a 23-year-old female British tourist whose legs were immediately severed below the knee.
According to the New York Post, two quick-thinking good Samaritans responded immediately. A pizza truck owner named Max Crespo reportedly grabbed a leash from a nearby woman walking a dog and created a tourniquet to stop the woman's bleeding, also placed her severed left leg in a bucket. Passerby David Justino, used his belt to stop the bleeding in her right leg.
"He either gunned it or thought he hit the brakes and [instead] hit the accelerator, but that cab took off," shaken tourist Jeffrey Hayes, 65, of Massachusetts, told the Post.
"It just zoomed, and [the bicyclist] went flipping up over the hood, over the windshield. He got carried 15 feet."
Dr. Oz heard the crash from his studio six levels above and rushed down to the street to help. By the time he got there, however, the situation was mostly under control due to the quick thinking by the initial responders.
EMS responders arrived quickly on the scene and the woman was transported to Bellevue Hospital, where she remains in critical condition. The cause of the accident is still being investigated.
"As Dr. Oz responded to an accident outside his office, the NYC emergency first responders, who are among best in the world, were already treating a woman who had been struck by a cab," said his rep in a statement. "The paramedics expertly treated the woman at the scene with the help of a good Samaritan who used his belt as a tourniquet. Our thoughts and prayers are with the woman and her family."
Coincidentally, it's the second time this week that the good doctor has leapt into emergency response mode.
Last Saturday, Dr. Oz was running the USANA Health Sciences Inc. 5k race in Salt Lake City, Utah, when a fellow runner collapsed next to him. When the runner couldn't breath and frothy liquid was coming out of his lungs, indicating pulmonary edema (drowning in your own secretions), Oz got oxygen on him and transferred 3 bags intravenously and transferred him to the hospital. The runner stabilized and was eventually okay.
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