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Desperately Seeking Union Square Subway Hero
By
Jen Chung
Published May 26, 2010
Modified May 26, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 26, 2010
Modified May 26, 2010
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Not only did the woman who fainted into the Union Square L tracks on Monday night survive with an Eighth Avenue-bound L train passing over her, a mysterious Good Samaritan saved her! According to the Daily News, a man jumped into the tracks and attempted to lift Jessica Oshita onto the platform: "But before he could pull off the rescue, he heard the rumbling of the oncoming Manhattan-bound train and was forced to make a split-second switch to Plan B.... As the train approached, the hero placed Oshita's body in the well between the rails and then quickly hoisted himself onto the platform, the sources said."
Oshita, a 26-year-old photographer, was "unconscious and had blood pouring from her head" from the fall but didn't suffer any serious injuries (she's in stable condition at Bellevue). The hero, described only as a black man, left before anyone could ask him his name; in fact, it happened so fast that other witnesses didn't see him.
Oshita's mother tells the News, "I think this whole thing is a miracle. He is a guardian angel." The News wants to the guardian angel to contact them (of course), and he joins a list of fellow subway heroes including Chad Lindsey (saving a person from a C train at Penn Station), Adam Rivera (Q tracks at Union Square), Terrence Kelsor (a PATH security guard at Christopher Street), two strangers at Union Square (they pulled up a lady who was shoved into the Q tracks) and, of course, Wesley Autrey, who laid on top of a man who was having seizures on the 137th Street 1 train tracks when the train rolled over them.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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