DC Firefighter Thanks Strangers Who Saved Her Life

April 26, 2017
Firefighter Angelia Boddie suffered cardiac arrest while driving and a group of strangers rushed to her aid.

April 26-- A veteran Washington D.C. firefighter got a chance to thank the group of good Samaritans who rushed to her aid and saved her life.

News 4 in Washington reports that Angelia Boddie, a 20-year veteran of the D.C. Fire and EMS Dept., suffered cardiac arrest while she was behind the wheel of a car near George Washington University Hospital.

A restaurant worker, two medical students and many members of the fire department helped save her life.

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"Total strangers recognized there was an emergency, and they acted," Boddie said at a ceremony Tuesday.

Boddie was on duty late last month and driving along Pennsylvania Ave. near the hospital when she got into a fender bender just prior to the episode.

Restaurant worker Sequaan Bussie had been heading home from his job when he looked into Boddie's car and realized something was wrong. 

"When I looked at her, she was leaned over the seat, foaming at the mouth," Bussie told News 4.

He called 911 and an operator told him to pull Boddie out of the car. As Bussie and another passerby removed her from the vehicle, first-year George Washington medical student Brandon Glousman was walking by and knew what to do. Glousman checked for Bussie's pulse and felt nothing. He began CPR and called out for help.

In stepped another George Washington medical student, Tyler Kingdon, who had been out for a bike ride. He started doing chest compressions on Boddie.

A local advisory neighborhood commissioner, a Boy Scout troop leader and 13 members of the fire department also came to the firefighter's rescue and she was rushed to the nearby hospital. There, caregivers in the emergency department, intensive care unit and cardiac unit helped her recover.

Boddie was near tears as she thanked her rescuers and doctors at Tuesday's ceremony.

"Without people in place and my coworkers, I wouldn't be here today," she said.

Boddie has not returned to active duty but hopes to soon.

Bussie, the young man who pulled Boddie from her car, told News 4 that the experience has inspired him to become a paramedic or doctor.

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