Every day after work, Katie Kirwan, BSN, a nurse in Hematology-Oncology, drives through West Philadelphia on her way home. But the trip on April 28 was not like any other. As she drove by Farragut and Sansom Streets, she suddenly saw a young man on a bike being hit by a car and flying up into the air and then come crashing down.
She immediately pulled over and ran to the young man, trying to keep him still and calm. “He hadn’t been wearing a helmet and I didn’t know if he had a head injury,” she said, but “both his legs were broken.”
In the 30 minutes it took for the ambulance to arrive, Kirwan remained seated on the ground, with the young man’s head in her lap as she held his hand and talked to him. “He was scared … and in shock,” she said, adding that “I had never seen an accident like that.” When the young man’s mother arrived — in time to see her son being put on a stretcher and brought to the trauma ED at Penn Presbyterian — Kirwan reached out to her as well.
“Katie selflessly guarded this gentleman while he was lying helpless on Walnut Street, unable to walk, and she helped him until EMS came,” said Christopher Lee, MOT, an occupational therapist at GSPP who was also helping at the scene. “I was so encouraged and inspired by her, and reminded of why nurses are so special.”