Delivery driver helps save woman's life while dropping off pizza 

Story Transcript

Delivery driver Sophia Furtado was dropping off a pizza at the end of her shift when she noticed something was amiss.

As she approached the customer's door in West Island Fairhaven, Mass., the porch lights flickered on, and she saw a woman lying on the ground at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding profusely from the head.

Furtado, who once trained to be an emergency medical technician (EMT), sprang immediately into action, called 911, and cared for the woman until an ambulance arrived on the scene.

"I think all the skills that I learned throughout EMT school and the training definitely came in hand for that night, because I wasn't afraid to just step in. I wasn't afraid to take care of her," Furtado told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

"It felt like it was meant to be, like I was meant to be there and I was meant to help her."

The woman, Caryn Hebert Sullivan, is now recovering, and Furtado is being hailed as a hero by her employer and the local police department. 

'Oh my God, what do we do?'

Sullivan says she ordered a pizza on Feb. 11 at her cottage in Fairhaven. She decided to wait outside for the delivery so as not to wake her husband Robert. 

She has a bad knee, and while she was waiting for her delivery, it gave out and she fell down the stairs and struck her head on the brick. 

"I just remember laying there outside for the longest time by myself, looking up," she said. After that, she says she doesn't remember anything at all.

That's when Furtado showed up. When she saw Sullivan, she entered the home and found Robert sleeping inside.

"I came in frantically telling him, like, 'Hey, your wife is at the bottom of the steps. She's in trouble, she's bleeding. We need to help her as soon as possible,'" Furdado said. "He's like, 'Oh my God, what do we do? What do we do?"

Immediately, Furtado called 911 and put it on speakerphone so she could follow the dispatcher's instructions. She sent Robert inside to get a blanket to keep his wife warm, as well as some gauze or something to put pressure on the wound.

Soon after, Fairhaven Police Department officer Jillian Jodoin arrived on the scene. 

"Sophia identified herself as someone with an emergency medical background. At that moment Sophia became a part of our team to aid Caryn," Jodain said in an email. "I asked her if it was possible for her to keep stabilizing Caryn's neck to keep her spine safe. Her answer was, 'I'm not going anywhere.'"

Together, Furtado, Robert and the responding officers stanched Sullivan's bleeding and stabilized her neck until an ambulance arrived. 

Sullivan was rushed to hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery at 2 a.m. and spent three weeks recovering. 

"The doctor said, 'Another 10 more minutes and you would have been dead,'" Sullivan said. "For her to show up at the time she showed up and to handle herself and to be there, to take control and take everything she did, it all just saved my life. She is my guardian angel."

Trained to be an EMT

Furtado says she was acting on instinct that night. She has a lot of respect for first responders, and had hoped to become an EMT herself one day.

"It's something that I definitely always wanted to do. But I tried to take the test two times and I failed," she said. "So at that point … I was kind of discouraged because I'm like, what if this isn't for me?"

But what happened with Sullivan has her reconsidering that assessment. 

She said she'd love to go back to school and try again — though she said she's not in a financial position to do so. She takes care of her children during the day, and delivers for DoorDash at night. 

"For me to go to school, I would have to stop DoorDashing, and that's my only source of income right now," she said.

Jodoin says she was so impressed with Furtado that she reached out to DoorDash to tell them what she'd done. The company has since awarded her a $1,000 US educational grant.

"Ms. Furtado's care and quick response were nothing short of heroic and we are honoured to have been able to show our appreciation for her tremendous efforts," DoorDash said in a statement.

The Fairhaven Police Department also recognized Furtado for her service with a lifesaving award. Both Sullivan's and Furtado's families were on hand when she received it.

I would do anything for her. She saved me. I didn't even know her.- Caryn Sullivan

"As every officer in this room can tell you, what Sophia did that night is not something anyone would just do. We have all worked long enough in this field to have seen people walk away, run away, drive away, pull out their phone, or simply just watch," Jodoin said.

"Sophia sprung into action, alerted Robert, activated the emergency response system, implemented materials needed, rendered aid, and helped officers streamline information gathering. She saved a life."

Furtado, meanwhile, said she's touched and surprised by all the attention she's getting.

"I definitely do not go into this situation saving Caryn and expecting anything back from it. I was just hoping the lady made it," she said.

The two women say they have remained in touch since the rescue. They speak regularly, and Sullivan even bought Easter presents for Furdado's children.

"I would do anything for her," Sullivan said. "She saved me. I didn't even know her."

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview with Sophia Furtado produced by Kate McGillivray.