Paramedics free woman trapped at bus stop

Paramedics from the Winter Haven Fire Department had to rescue a woman from a bus shelter early Wednesday morning after she became wedged between the bus stop bench and the flexible, plastic back of the bus stop shelter.

Caroline Hird, a Citrus Connection fixed route services supervisor, said she always checks the bus stops as she heads for work from U.S. 27 along Cypress Gardens Boulevard. At 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, she saw something odd.

“I looked over and see what appears to me to be a child dangling over the bench. I turned around and went through the Walmart parking lot,” Hird said. “I blow my horn and she waves at me — I rolled down my window and asked if she’s OK and she said, ‘No’ and I asked if she needed me to call 911 and she said, ‘Yes, please.’”

Paramedics from the WHFD responded and had a difficult time removing the 53-year-old woman — who was trapped from the waist up.

While the woman said she had been there all night, several construction workers heading to their jobs Wednesday morning said they had passed by the bus stop at 1 a.m. and no one was there.

The woman told Hird she has a history of strokes and could not remember how she became trapped. Hird said the woman seemed to be disoriented and in pain. The woman said she was sight-impaired and was carrying a black cane.

“I still can’t figure out how she got wedged waist-high,” Hird said. “She doesn’t have a clue how this happened. I kept asking ‘did someone do this?’ to her and she kept saying, ‘No.’”

Hird said she has seen homeless people asleep or passed out from drinking, but never anything like this.

Before paramedics took the woman to Winter Haven Hospital, she had a message for Hird.

“She said, ‘Thank you for saving my life!’” Hird said.

Unfortunately, Hird did not get the woman’s name. She said she would like to call and check on her at the hospital.