EDITOR’S NOTE: Some images may be disturbing to some readers.
SURREY — An elderly man might not be alive today if it wasn’t for a local woman’s act of kindness.
Mariam Roya has been sharing the senior’s story online, after rushing 80-year-old “Sid” to hospital when she found him lying in the middle of the street, bloody and freezing earlier this month.
It has gone viral, with more than 11,000 shares on her first post alone.
“He was frazzled and trying to get up but he couldn’t,” Roya wrote in a Facebook post, noting she found Sid when she was running errands leaving the Superstore near King George and 72nd Avenue.
Roya said she was horrified no one stopped to help him.
She later found out he had fallen down and was unable to get up.
“People were just driving around and past him like he didn’t exist,” Roya wrote. “It broke my heart I put my emergency lights on and honked my car to make my way to him and ran out to help him up. Not sure if he was homeless but his hands were freezing so he must have been outside for at least 24 hours.”
(A photo of Sid’s injuries after Roya found him lying on a Surrey street. Photo: Mariam Roya)
Roya said she brought him to her car, and realized he had a huge gash on his head and was bleeding all over his face.
“I blasted my heater and told him I’m calling an ambulance, but he refused saying the sirens scare him so I asked him if it’s ok that I drive him to Surrey Memorial and he said ok.
“I drove as fast as I could to get him there and he was shaking saying he’s scared,” she added.
Roya said she urged for him to treated at the emergency room immediately.
“He grabbed my hand and kissed my hands and I patted his back saying, ‘You’re going to be ok.”
While she expressed anger in her early posts about Sid’s treatment in hospital, she now seems happy with how he’s being cared for.
“I’m not posting this story for recognition at all,” she wrote, “rather want to open everyone’s eyes up of how cruel and cold-hearted this world is. What would happen if I hadn’t found him or what if I just left him in emergency without following up. Just heartbroken. One of the biggest reasons I’m choosing to be in medical care is to change the way health care workers treat patients. I may have little chance of changing it but little chance is better then no chance and I encourage every single medical care professional to stand by me as this should be our number one target and goal.”
Her latest update said Sid’s doing well, and doctors are working to get him into a care home so he can have the long-term medical attention he requires.
In the video, she asked Sid how he was doing.
“Oh, I guess I’m a whole lot better than I was,” the man replied.
Asked what he has to say to people who are praying for him, he said: “I appreciate the consideration very much. It’s precious.”
As for those who drove by him?
“I can understand why they don’t want to get involved in human misery,” he said. “People don’t need it in their life, eh?”
Roya said she doesn’t understand how so many people “simply flashed their signals and changed lanes to pass Sid hopelessly on the street in the rain” seeing as he was in a busy intersection.
“Thank you all for sharing this story and I hope next time someone is in need of help, we all will jump in and do our part,” she wrote, “as this was the message I wanted to get out to the public. I’m not the hero in this – Sid is a true hero in my eyes and I hope no one will go through this again.”
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