69-year-old fell asleep in her car minutes before it caught fire—a feature in her car and a bystander saved her life
Some incidents help people form lifelong connections. A 69-year-old woman who was stuck inside a burning car made such a connection with a 23-year-old who rushed to save her life. The woman, Mary Frances McLoryd, was driving on a remote highway when she fell asleep. The car rolled over and the woman was trapped inside as it caught fire, per Good Morning America. But at the same time, 23-year-old Nathan Felix was passing by the area and rushed to save McLoryd's life.
"I remember trying to protect myself, like just putting my hands and my arms up and turning my body to the right side because that's where the heat was coming from. There's no way I was getting out of that car," Mcloryd recounted. "I wouldn't be here had it not been for Nathan." Felix noticed the woman inside the car after he heard screaming from inside the burning vehicle. "I could hear somebody screaming. And then she's like, 'Help me! Help me!' I'm just...hearing her in there panicking, so I'm trying to do whatever I can to possibly assist her." The Town of Chester Police Department showed how the first responders came in at the scene, soon afterwards and handed a fire extinguisher to Felix who rushed to the car.
The man used the extinguisher while an officer broke the sunroof with a window-breaking device to try and get the woman out of the car. Felix eventually pulled the woman out of the space. "Once we got her out, she was like, screaming and everything. I was like, 'Thank you, God.' That's all I was saying in my head — 'Thank you, God,'" Felix recalled. The woman explained that her in-car safety system recognized that she was in an accident and sent out an alert to 911. Hence, the first responders could arrive at the scene at the right time. The woman suffered severe burns because of the accident and had to stay at the hospital for over a month. The burn injuries covered around 20 percent of her body.
When she finally returned home, McLoryd finally got a chance to meet and thank Felix for saving her life. The woman expressed that she was really thankful for what the man did and he felt like a nephew to her after the incident. "It was overwhelming what this young man did. What young person runs up to a vehicle that is now caught on fire and still tries to get somebody out of it? I can't thank Nathan enough. I don't even have words to thank him. I don't know how to thank him. Other than to say, if you ever need me, I'm always here in your life," McLoryd pointed out. People appreciated the young man for his brave act in the comments section of the video.
@antoniobronx4955 wrote, "Wow. This brought tears to my eyes. I hope that if something like this ever happened, I would have even half the courage and selflessness that this young man displayed. I hope the city of Chester acknowledges it and gives him some kind of civic award. A true hero, not helping because he was doing his job or for a paycheck, but simply to aid a fellow human being." @rpf3968 commented, "May God bless this man. From what I could see, he did more than the first responders. They broke the window, but he ran back to the car with the fire extinguisher they handed him and he was the primary person who pulled her from the car. God bless him!" @Unique_n_Devine remarked, "Bless his whole soul for risking his life to save hers. Bless everyone involved."