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Another NYC Subway Hero Saves Woman
WFRV.COM ^ | 12 JANUARY 2007 | AP

Posted on 01/13/2007 6:27:37 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist

(CBS) NEW YORK -- New York City has another subway hero to brag about. An off-duty emergency medical technician saved a woman who apparently intended to throw herself in front of a subway train in Brooklyn, almost ending up on the tracks as the woman tried to fight him off, the fire department said.

"It was pretty close," 38-year-old Daniel Fitzpatrick said Friday of his near-encounter with an oncoming train. "It was too close for me, put it that way."

The Thursday rescue came just over a week after 50-year-old Wesley Autrey saved a young man, and himself, from an oncoming train by placing his body over the teenager in a pit between the tracks.

Fitzpatrick found himself similarly thrust into danger as he was headed home to Franklin Square on Long Island Thursday. He was wearing his FDNY jacket when someone at the Flushing Avenue stop on the J line tapped him on the shoulder and alerted him to an apparently distraught woman.

"FDNY, I think this lady is going to jump," Fitzpatrick said the stranger told him.

Fitzpatrick said he tried to get the woman's attention, but she walked away. Not long afterward, he saw her climbing down to a utility catwalk near the tracks at the elevated station, just as a train was coming.

He went after her, grabbing her and keeping her pinned to railing on the side of the track bed. The woman kept pushing him back, and the train nearly hit his head, he said. Another straphanger grabbed his head and protected it.

Police arrived on the scene of the incident, which occurred around 4 p.m., and took the woman to a hospital. Officials Friday said they had no information on the woman's condition.

Fitzpatrick "displayed great courage in the face of danger and saved a woman from certain death," fire Chief of Department Salvatore Cassano said Friday in a release. "He, and the civilian who assisted, should be commended."

Fitzpatrick has been on the job as an EMT for the fire department for nearly three years and is training to be a paramedic. Prior to joining the emergency rescue services, he was a corporate trust officer.

He said he didn't know who the man was who helped protect his head.

"I thanked him, but I've been trying to reach out to him to thank him in person," he said. "I really appreciate what he did for me."

He said Friday that he's physically fine.

"I think I had a little too much adrenaline," he said.

It remains to be seen whether he'll get the attention Autrey received, which included a $10,000 check from real estate mogul Donald Trump. But Fitzpatrick said that's not a concern — he's just happy things worked out.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 01/13/2007 6:27:38 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
I don't want to be a considered a hero for doing the right thing. Its a perfectly ordinary act of righteous behavior. If every one went out of their way to do some thing like this, the Messiah would already be here among us.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

2 posted on 01/13/2007 6:31:25 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Wow. Amazing.

I am always impressed, also, by the way New Yorkers will get involved and do something. Many people in other parts of the country will not do this, but New Yorkers do look out for each other.


3 posted on 01/13/2007 6:33:56 AM PST by livius
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

When someone keeps someone else from getting run over by a subway, he's a hero and gets lauded and receives national attention, but when an armed citizen keeps another from getting killed by a criminal, there is no hero worship, and hardly any coverage in the media except to say "the gun has been seized to see if it was stolen, and the DA is deciding whether or not to press charges."


4 posted on 01/13/2007 6:38:54 AM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Such events no doubt happen many, many times each day. Across the nation, acts of selflessness and caring. It is good to hear of at least some of them.

Heros walk among us. Of that, I am happy to know and be reassured of.

5 posted on 01/13/2007 6:40:12 AM PST by Thumper1960 (Unleash the Dogs of War as a Minority, or perish as a party.)
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To: livius
I am always impressed, also, by the way New Yorkers will get involved and do something. Many people in other parts of the country will not do this, but New Yorkers do look out for each other.

You have got to be kidding.

6 posted on 01/13/2007 6:50:02 AM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
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To: raybbr

No, I grew up there and lived there off and on for most of my life. If you want to see a place where people really ignore other people, look at California. Coldest people I ever met out there.


7 posted on 01/13/2007 6:52:40 AM PST by livius
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To: livius
New Yorkers do look out for each other.

True. It's the outsiders we hate.

Welcome to New York! :-)

Now get out.

8 posted on 01/13/2007 6:55:20 AM PST by lowbridge ("I wonder if he's in touch with the critics out there, like Matt Damon, the actor" -Chris Matthews)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

"It remains to be seen whether he'll get the attention Autrey received, which included a $10,000 check from real estate mogul Donald Trump."

So now doing the right thing and saving someone is a competition?

This writer should be shot be being an idiot!


9 posted on 01/13/2007 6:55:55 AM PST by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: Bigh4u2
FOR being and idiot.. (blushes
10 posted on 01/13/2007 6:57:12 AM PST by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: goldstategop
If every one went out of their way to do some thing like this, the Messiah would already be here among us.

An excellent point!

I wonder how many law suits are filed against the good samaritan for their selfless acts - because they infringed on some "right" the person with a death wish has.

11 posted on 01/13/2007 7:20:58 AM PST by Adiemus
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To: livius
No, I grew up there and lived there off and on for most of my life. If you want to see a place where people really ignore other people, look at California. Coldest people I ever met out there.

Sorry. I have travelled almost this entire country. I never got the feeling that NY'ers cared about anything but their own self. I never got invitations to spend the night like I did in Wichita, Amarillo, Owatonna, MN, and various other places while I was there on a job.

Driving in NY can be hell unless you get very aggressive which is not really conducive to friendliness. NY is just one big competitive world and outsiders are very rarely, unless they have something to offer in return, made to feel welcome.

12 posted on 01/13/2007 7:28:24 AM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
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To: livius
I would respectfully disagree with you. We frequently read stories like this from all over the country. People going into burning buildings, flooded ares etc. trying to rescue people.
I grew up in small town Minnesota and if a farmer could not get his crops in because illness or injury people from all over the county would bring his crops.
I think it is an American thing, we have that willing to help spirit.

It is that NY was hit with a horrible tragedy on 9/11 and the world witnessed the spirit of New Yorkers pulling together and now this is the second subway rescue within the last month....God Bless America
13 posted on 01/13/2007 7:33:58 AM PST by Kimmers (It's not what you take when you leave this world behind, it's what you leave behind when you go)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Funny, I saw the comment about subway hero and immediately I thought that someone had taken out the trash a la Bernie Goetz.


14 posted on 01/13/2007 8:50:37 AM PST by Hazwaste
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