New York police's life-saving story in a race against time

AccuWeather

The New York State Police saved a 64-year-old woman and her husband after they got stranded in a winter storm on Nov. 29. They were traveling to Cleveland, Ohio, for an urgent heart transplant.

Transcript

00:00And welcome back to AccuWeather Early.

00:06Thanks for watching on this Wednesday morning.

00:08We've been dealing with a lot of winter weather here in the first blast for a lot of us.

00:13And there have been some dangerous situations, but we've also seen a lot of heroes come out

00:17in snowstorms.

00:18And that's what happened this weekend in upstate New York.

00:21Here with a life-saving story of cooperation and leadership is Trooper James O'Callaghan.

00:26A public information officer from the New York State Police.

00:30Thank you so much for joining us.

00:32Thank you, Bernie.

00:33Ariella, thanks for having me on.

00:35It's our pleasure.

00:36And Trooper, a 64-year-old woman and her husband were driving from Rochester, New York to the

00:43Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for a heart transplant, but they got stranded on Friday in the snowstorm.

00:50So how did the state troopers get involved and save the day?

00:54No, absolutely.

00:56She left the Rochester area with her husband.

00:58So it's pretty far from the PA line down by where you would think, you know, the bottom

01:03half of New York.

01:04So they came around.

01:05But unfortunately, the day after Thanksgiving, they got hit with a lot of snow, 30-plus inches.

01:10And we had to close the 90, which is the main corridor through there on the way to Cleveland

01:15Clinic.

01:16And we had them all exiting on State Route 5.

01:18Unfortunately, we had 40 tractor trailers, hundreds of disabled vehicles.

01:23And she was living off of a battery-powered heart pump.

01:27So her husband knew that they could be stranded, cars starting to cover with snow.

01:30We had UTVs, snowmobiles, emergency operations, hundreds of troopers in that area assisting,

01:36making sure everyone's warm, has batteries in their phones, you know, food, water.

01:41But now the mission changes for us.

01:43So we send out UTVs.

01:45The husband's in contact with Cleveland Clinic.

01:47Cleveland Clinic is in contact with one of our sergeants down in Jamestown, New York.

01:51With the boots on the ground, he was able to communicate.

01:55And we were able to find her vehicle, which was not an easy thing to do.

01:58Remember, all the cars have a few inches to a foot of snow on them, license plates covered

02:02and everything else.

02:03So now we find that vehicle, remove her, take her to a fire hall, assess the pump.

02:09And then from there, we're able to communicate and get her a private plane just out of the

02:14storm in Jamestown Airport and fly her to Cleveland Clinic.

02:18Incredible.

02:19What a unique situation that I'm sure a lot of you haven't found yourself in and just

02:22so helpful.

02:23And how did troopers devise the plan to transport the woman who eventually made it safely to

02:27the Cleveland Clinic?

02:29And as we continue to follow this story?

02:33Absolutely.

02:34It's perseverance.

02:35You know, it's just it's a lot of teamwork effort, not only just with New York State

02:40Police, but with fire personnel, with Cleveland Clinic staff, our sergeants.

02:45This is something you don't train for.

02:47Obviously, we do a great amount of training in our academy.

02:49And then through the years, you adapt and overcome in situations.

02:53But none of us, you know, have a lot of medical background when it comes to heart pumps.

02:57And how long is the transplant at heart good for there?

03:01So time is of the essence.

03:02We had to make sure we get things done.

03:04And that's what we do.

03:05You know, these storms, not only are we doing and assisting a lot of people with different

03:09scenarios, but we're also assisting mission oriented situations like this, helping an

03:15individual out.

03:16Obviously, time is of the essence.

03:18And like I said, we adapt and overcome with every situation.

03:21And in this case, an instance, we were really happy with the outcome.

03:25You're talking 124 disabled vehicles, 93 collisions, seven of those being personal injury.

03:32But at the end of the day, through this Thanksgiving, we were able to have no fatalities in that

03:37area.

03:38And that is just a testament of all of the first responders working together.

03:43The woman did make it safely to the Cleveland Clinic.

03:47What do you want people to know about the officers involved in this success story?

03:53You know, it just shows, too, I tried to get all of them or individually to do interviews,

03:58you know, multiple different scenarios here with different networks.

04:02And all of them, unfortunately, refused.

04:04They don't consider themselves heroes, but that's just how we operate.

04:08They get a task.

04:10They do it to the best.

04:11They do it to the best of their ability.

04:14And you know, they carry on and then move on to the next task.

04:17But at the end of the day, we're out there.

04:20We're doing a job.

04:21And, you know, what we do is serve and protect.

04:22And we try to, you know, go out and do the best we can with the situation that we have.

04:27Fortunately, we have UTV snowmobiles.

04:30We have a lot of training.

04:31We have a lot of good staffing.

04:33And we work well with all the other organizations.

04:36And at the end of the day, this is the result.

04:39For James O'Callaghan with the New York State Police, I'm so happy that you're speaking

04:43on their behalf, you know, kind of hidden heroes.

04:45They're not going to speak up.

04:46But it's so wonderful to share those stories.

04:48We really appreciate you for joining us on AccuWeather Early.

04:52Thank you for the time.

04:53And stay warm.

04:54Stay safe.

04:55Yeah, you as well.

04:56Stay warm and stay safe.

04:57Great, great, great, great story.

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