New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Mitchell Loewen was eating with his wife and two-year-old child Sunday when disaster struck nearby.
A vehicle had come crashing down to earth after falling four stories from a parking garage in New Orleans, and the man driving it was trapped inside. That’s when Loewen led a group of rescuers to free the man.
“People were screaming, it sounded like a bomb or an earthquake or something,” Loewen said, per Marie Simoneaux of NOLA.com. “There were a bunch of people standing around, but not approaching the car and I was like ‘What’s up, let’s help this guy. I mean, obviously there was someone in there, I wasn’t going to just stand by and watch. It was a life or death situation.”
The man who was stuck inside the wrecked vehicle had his legs pinned and could not get out. Loewen said it took about 10 people to flip the Mercedes Benz SUV onto its side. Then, worried because he couldn’t see the man inside due to excessive damage to the doors, Loewen ripped one of the doors right off its hinges to get to the poor guy.
“He didn’t say much, he was just thanking us all. I hugged him and told him he was going to be ok, and then I prayed with him,” Loewen said. “I couldn’t tell how bad his injuries were, but there was a lot of blood and broken glass.”
He described the entire situation as “like a movie” and said he’s “still in awe and can’t stop thinking about him and praying that he’s all right.”
No doubt, the man who was trapped can’t stop thinking about it all, either. We’re just glad he made it out relatively okay, and that Loewen and the other rescuers were there to pull him out of that awful situation.