By EMS1 Staff
NEWTON, Mass. — An EMT surprised a teen he treated after she was struck by a stray bullet as a toddler, leaving her permanently paralyzed, at her graduation.
WHDH reported that Joe O’Hare, who is now Superintendent of EMS Field Operations in Boston, reunited with Kai Leigh Harriot at Newton Day School’s graduation ceremony 15 years after he rushed her to safety.
Harriot was left paralyzed from the chest down after the 2003 incident, after which O’Hare carried her to the ambulance.
The two shared an emotional reunion, which O’Hare described as “encouraging.”
“We see hundreds and hundreds of patients every day with Boston EMS,” he said. “You always carry some of those calls with you over your entire career. To actually see her and talk to her makes me feel really good.”
Harriot’s mother, Tanya David, said the reunion was the highlight of her daughter’s graduation.
“I think one of the greatest parts of this day is meeting the man that carried my daughter out,” she said. “It’s a pleasure. It’s a privilege.”
Harriot, who publicly forgave her shooter at his sentencing, said she hopes others will follow her lead and be forgiving in their own lives.
“I’m definitely not just the 3-year-old who got shot,” Harriot said. “I’m my own woman now. I’m ready to take on the world and see what I can do with it.”
The teen has a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, where she will be attending in the fall.