Doctor who helped subway conductor who was slashed in neck speaks exclusively to CBS New York
NEW YORK -- The doctor who rushed through an A train to help a subway conductor who had been slashed in the neck spoke exclusively to CBS New York on Friday.
The conductor says the stranger saved his life and waited with him until first responders got there.
Doctors know while their life-saving efforts typically happen inside a hospital, sometimes they are tested out in the world, like down in the subway system.
Dr. Patrick McGrory, of NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, was on a subway train just when he was needed most.
"A blood-curdling scream is kind of what I heard first," he said.
The violent attack on a train conductor happened shortly after 3:30 Thursday morning as a train pulled into the Rockaway Avenue-Fulton Street station.
McGrory became a lifesaver for the man operating his train.
The conductor spoke exclusively to CBS New York on Thursday, describing how he put his head out the window, as part of his job to check the tracks, which gave an unknown attacker the opportunity to slash him in the neck.
"I don't know why it happened, but I'm just glad to be alive," the conductor said.
He considers himself very lucky McGrory was near.
The doctor told us the conductor's own message over a loudspeaker was a call to action.
"Announced that he needed medical attention, that he'd been stabbed ... I headed down towards the conductor," McGrory said. "He was holding his neck, so I knew he was bleeding from his neck, so stop the bleed."
McGrory says he took the face mask the conductor was wearing and rolled it up to stop the bleeding.
"I had to use what I had," he said.
He estimated it was about 20-25 minutes of applying pressure to the wound before paramedics arrived. The conductor, now recovering with 34 stitches, says when he's feeling better he will get together again with the doctor.
"He was an angel," the conductor said on Thursday.
"I call him an angel back," McGrory said. "He's gotten me home safely, I'm sure, before, so he's my angel, too."
McGrory said everybody can learn from the emergency medical techniques he used.
"So I invite everybody to get on the web and find a Stop the Bleed program near you," he said.
Meanwhile, police have not yet tracked down the attacker in this incident.
The Transport Workers Union is calling for better police protection for MTA workers.
