We started today with the grim news that two more people had been killed, and a third had been seriously injured, in subway-related incidents between late Friday and early this morning. But we'll end the day on a decidedly happier note: at least one person was saved from that same fate thanks to a good Samaritan named Ramiro. "I witnessed an elderly man fall into the tracks," Felicia Greenfield told us. "Ramiro jumped right in and pulled him out without a moment's hesitation."
The incident happened around 4 p.m. on Friday at the Lexington Avenue / 59th Street Station in Manhattan. Greenfield says she was with her 7-year-old daughter at the station when the elderly man fell and Ramiro sprang into action. "He was truly amazing," she said. "Didn't hesitate for a second, jumped right down and practically threw the older man up onto the platform (a few others helped grab and pull him up)."
Felicia Greenfield
Although she wasn't sure how much time passed until the next train arrived, she said "once both men were up on the platform, a few of us were still trying to move them away from the edge, realizing they could have both slipped back down, they were so close." In the process of helping the elderly man, Ramiro hurt his knee getting himself back up. "It was when I bent down next to Ramiro, to ask him to roll away from the edge, that I saw the excruciating pain on his face, while he was clutching his knee," she told us. She called EMS, but left before Ramiro was treated.
As for the older man who fell, he only stayed to be treated after Ramiro and other onlookers "very nicely kept telling him to STAY and get checked out." Once EMS got there, he refused treatment and then left the station: "He was most likely just senile," she said, "but I have no doubt [he] will fall again in the future. Hopefully not requiring anyone else to risk their life."
We've contacted Ramiro to get his perspective on the incident. But Greenfield said she was so impressed because he made "a major event look like nothing special. I kept wondering what the rest of his day was going to be like. He didn't seem the type to post his heroism on Facebook, so I just wanted him to get a little acknowledgment. Although I'd never want my daughter to jump in the tracks, I loved her getting to see a true everyday hero in action."
