Jami Ganz
New York Daily News
GLENBURN, Maine — A Maine teenager’s quick thinking helped to save his mom after a recent accident left her bleeding outside the family’s home.
When Kristen Iarrobino fell outside her Glenburn home, about 10 miles northwest of Bangor, last week and cut her wrist, her 16-year-old son Cyrus’ ingenuity saved the day, WABI reported.
Iarrobino recalled to the outlet that she had a feeling she “probably shouldn’t” wear her slippers, “because it could be slippery,” but opted for warmth. She fell moments later.
“I guess my hand went out, and the mug broke, and then I landed on the mug so the pieces of the ceramic cut my wrist,” she said.
With his dad, Michael, out of town, Cyrus followed his mom’s instructions to call 911, though he thought she might be overreacting for what he thought was a broken wrist.
“Then I grab a towel and see how bad it actually is,” he said, referring to the amount of blood.
With at least a 15-minute wait ahead of them for the ambulance, the dispatcher told the teen to make a tourniquet.
“I had these new shoes that I had just bought ... and I just ripped the strings right off them like some subconscious Hulk strength,” Cyrus told the outlet. “The guy on the phone kind of just said to tie it around and make it look like a clock. I watch a lot of ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ but I had never seen one before, I know it’s not the same.”
Paramedics then arrived at the house and got his mom on an IV and transported her to the hospital, where she underwent two surgeries before returning home.
“In hindsight, you think about things like this, like almost dying, and I think the number one thing I took away from it was just gratitude and feeling like I’m exactly where I need to be in life,” said Kristen Iarrobino.
Praising his son for his ability to stay cool under pressure, Michael Iarrobino, who has military training said even those with the necessary know-how often “can’t perform,” but when you can, it’s akin to “discovering a super power.”
Cyrus’ mom, for her part, is “not surprised at all. That he was able to be there for me, and you know, essentially save my life.”
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