Rescuers Race To Pull Man from Smoking Car, Then Recognize Him as Coworker's Son
A Florida man is safe thanks to a group of good Samaritans who pulled him out of a smoking vehicle, only later to discover that the rescuers were his mother’s coworkers.
Terrance Benjamin was trapped in his vehicle, which had flipped over and hit a tree.
As people ran to help him, Benjamin realized the strangers kept saying his mother’s name, but he struggled to understand why.
“People screaming, you need to get out of the car man, it’s smoking, get out the car,” Benjamin told WFLA. “I heard someone say my mama’s name. I was like, ‘how do you know my mama?’”
Benjamin’s mother, Tiffany Brown, is a OneBlood donor service specialist. A team of Brown’s coworkers had been traveling to a blood drive event in Tampa, Florida, in the organization’s large red bus when they witnessed the collision.
“We noticed that the car in front of us, the wheel completely flew off, went to the other side of the road, flipped over and hit a tree,” Dustin McKinley, a OneBlood employee, told WFLA.
OneBlood team members rescue man from crash only to discover victim is coworker’s son | @WFLASarafina reportshttps://t.co/KhUt8UcxpF pic.twitter.com/MpeDdTVpf9
— WFLA NEWS (@WFLA) December 19, 2019
McKinley and his colleagues raced to help the man who was pinned inside the vehicle.
“We got out of the car and pulled the gentleman out of the car,” McKinley said.
Elayne Hill, another OneBlood employee, grabbed some ice to try and keep Benjamin awake.
“I got ice and I was putting it on his face to cool him down because he kept trying to fall asleep on me,” Hill said.
As the good Samaritans worked, they realized the man they were helping was personally connected to the OneBlood non-profit organization through his mother, Brown.
Brown told WFLA she believes her coworkers, who have medical training, were in the right place at the right time to save her son’s life.
Brown became emotional at the thought of strangers rushing to help her adult son.
“Not knowing who this person was that need the help and you stopped and helped them anyways, and then to find out later it was someone you worked with child. I was so overwhelmed,” Brown said.
According to WFLA, Benjamin suffered a broken arm, a collapsed lung, and a dislocated knee.
OneBlood, a non-profit blood center serving the southeast region of the United States, said the medical emergency highlighted an important reason why people should consider participating in their local blood drives.
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