Dr. Mehmet Oz helped attend to the victim of a taxi accident near New York City's Rockefeller Center on Tuesday. The celebrity physician was in the right place at the right time when a yellow taxi struck a British tourist, severing her leg.
The taxi was traveling uptown on Sixth Avenue and reportedly swerved to avoid a bicyclist, instead hitting the 23-year-old British woman who was
crossing 49th Street, witnesses told NBC New York.
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"He hit the girl, she flew up in the air, her leg was severed right off ... so I just grabbed my belt, went over, lifted her up, put it on, held it," said plumber David Justino, 44, who was working nearby.
A food cart vendor placed the severed leg on ice as Justino applied his belt as a tourniquet.
"Her leg was out, it was just out under the cart on the sidewalk,"
Mohammed Elsayed, the vendor, told the Daily News. "I ran with ice and a bucket. We put the foot in the bucket. There was a lot of blood."
Oz, whose 30 Rock studio is located nearby the accident site, arrived on the scene and helped with the compression.
"Her leg was crushed below the knee," Oz told the Daily News. "I helped put on the tourniquet with Dave the Plumber. Luckily Dave had a belt. They saved her life."
The victim is currently in critical condition at a local hospital, according to police. She was conscious throughout the ordeal.
The bicyclist and one other person were also reportedly injured, though it's not clear to what extent.
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