Falling onto the subway tracks is terrifying no matter what the circumstances, but a baby falling between the train and the platform has got to be one of the scariest scenarios that could happen. This occurred in Times Square this weekend—but thankfully, one quick-thinking good Samaritan was able to slip under the train to grab the child before anything bad happened.
Grandmother Pamela Ferrell told CBS that she was exiting the S train with 1-year-old Tabrina Ferrell in her stroller on Sunday around 7:45 p.m. when the incident occurred. Another passenger offered to help her carry the stroller cross the wide gap between the train and platform, but the stroller accidentally tipped over as they were doing so, sending the infant onto the tracks to everyone's horror.
Several people tried in vain to reach the baby from the edge, but thankfully, 54-year-old East Harlem resident Herman McGarrah sprung into action, slipping through the "fattest end" of the gap and crawling to the screaming baby. "When I got down there, it was dirty, I was scared, I was kind of shaking," McGarrah told the Daily News. "Once I got down there, I said 'Please God, don’t let the train move.'"
The baby only suffered a bruise to her forehead, and was in better spirits once she was back in her stroller. She was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital to treat her bruise. Ferrell added that McGarrah never left her side, even after paramedics arrived.
McGarrah, a bus company dispatcher, told the News that the rescue was a "redemption" for him, after a life struggling with homelessness, drug addiction and crime. "My life hasn’t been in vain," he said.
So go ahead and add Herman McGarrah's name to the illustrious list of Subway Heroes, including Jered Harvey, Brad Palmnani, Ramiro Ocasio, Carlos Flores, Francis Lusk, Wesley Autrey, and Larry David.
