Woman traces mystery hero who saved her after Oxford Street fall

 
'Guardian angel': nurse Matthew Quinn helped victim until paramedics arrived
Sophie Goodchild28 April 2014

An estate agent who suffered a serious fall in Oxford Street has tracked down her mystery “lifesaver”.

Susan Hill today described off-duty nurse Matthew Quinn as her “true guardian angel”.

The mother of two was in London planning to celebrate her 65th birthday with a trip to see Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre.

But she tripped outside Bond Street Tube station. The fall was so severe it split her head open and partially severed an artery.

Mr Quinn was passing and stopped to help until paramedics arrived. He managed to stem the bleeding with a scarf and his hands — and used paper napkins from a Pret a Manager nearby to cover the wound.

All Ms Hill knew was his first name and that he worked at King’s College Hospital.

She contacted King’s, who posted a message on the hospital intranet, and Mr Quinn got in touch.

They have now spoken on the phone and plan to meet in person for the first time since the accident in February this year.

Head injury: Susan Hill fell on a trip to London to celebrate her 65th birthday

Ms Hill, who had been visiting London from the West Midlands with her son, praised Mr Quinn and specialists at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where she was treated.

She said: “I was so lucky [Mr Quinn] was there — I don’t know what would have happened to me otherwise.

“He was my true guardian angel, and it was so nice to speak to him since.

“I’m grateful to him and to the neurosurgical team at St Mary’s Hospital, including surgeon Jan Bodnar for looking after me.”

Mr Quinn revealed it was a colleague who had mentioned the story on the intranet to him.

“I thought it had to be the same person. I’m really pleased to hear she is doing so well,” the nurse said.

“We are trained to deal with a whole range of cases, so I went into automatic pilot, and did what anyone else in my position would have done.”

Mr Quinn’s expert skills saved Ms Hill’s life. He placed his hands on each side of her head above her ears to hold her split scalp in place. He also helped paramedics care for her before an ambulance took her to hospital, where she stayed overnight.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in