Tow truck angel
Mystery driver saves man who collapsed in Bx.
A TOW TRUCK DRIVER — apparently hauling a pair of angel wings — swooped in and performed CPR on a stranger who had a heart attack in the Bronx.
And now his grateful victim wants to thank him.
“He did good . . . he did good,” Mark Solomon said at Montefiore Medical Center Thursday, his eyes filling with tears as he thought of the still-unidentified savior who came to his rescue. “I’ve never experienced anything like this. Nothing.”
Solomon, 53, remembers very little about the moment on Sept. 14 when his heart seized up.
The MTA night security guard had just parked his car and was walking to his building on Mace Ave. near Wallace Ave. in Allerton about 9 a.m. when he fell unconscious.
A neighbor saw Solomon fall — then watched as the good Samaritan ran to his side.
“I saw the tow truck,” said witness Renee Huge said. “He had stopped across the street and ran over here. He assessed the guy, ran back to the truck, got some stuff and started working on him.”
The tow truck driver, described only as a Hispanic man, started chest compressions on Solomon as Huge and another witness called 911.
“It was a very heroic act,” Huge said. “This is what we need. Somebody to just be there in a time of distress.”
The phantom paramedic went back to his truck and drove off just moments before EMS arrived.
Medics continued chest compressions as they rushed Solomon to Montefiore.
Solomon woke up at the hospital with no memory of the heart attack — or the man who saved him. He’s now undergoing physical therapy.
Neither cops nor firefighters have any record of a witness performing CPR on Solomon as they arrived.
Upon hearing about the hero tow truck driver, Solomon’s girlfriend Bobbi Brooks has made it her mission to find the man and thank him.
“We are looking for an angel,” Brooks said. “What are the odds that someone saw my boyfriend fall and ran over to help him? We are looking all around to thank him. He certainly deserves that at least.”
Brooks said she has visited all of the local tow truck companies looking for the hero, but no one has come forward.
When she does find him, she knows exactly what she is going to say to him, she said.
“Thank you for saving Mark’s life and all of God’s blessings,” she plans to say. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart because I don’t know if Mark would still be here.”