Orange Line MBTA Passengers Save Woman After Her Leg Gets Stuck

BACK BAY, MA — She was doing what thousands of Bostonians do every day. She was stepping off of the train, when somehow her leg got caught between the train and the platform. What happened next was a study in kindness of the strangers that helped her. It also put a giant spotlight on the high cost of a trip to the ER.

When the 45-year-old woman's leg caught in the gap between an Orange Line train and the platform Friday, the cut on her leg went down to the bone. But fearing the cost of a trip in an ambulance, which can range in the thousands of dollars in Boston, she at first begged those around her not to call one, according to tweets from the scene.

A transit authority surveillance video provided to Patch shows the woman falling as she leaves the train on June 29, at the Mass. Ave stop in the Back Bay around 5:30 p.m. You can see some people pushing still to get off, but almost immediately people come to help.

At one point someone notified an MBTA Transit Ambassador and the train’s motor person, who both contacted the control center and requested immediate medical attention, MBTA Spokesperson Joe Pesaturo told Patch. In the footage you can see people coming up to her and about a dozen people pushing on the Orange Line car, rocking it back and forth.

The woman later told police that those people who came to help her were the ones who freed her leg, which she told police was originally lodged farther into the gap by those “pushing to exit the train [behind her]."

When Boston EMS arrived about 10 minutes later, the Boston woman was still on the platform, and had a serious laceration on her left thigh, according to MBTA officials and the police report.

She was transported to Boston Medical Center, and according to a police report will need surgery.

Check out the Globe (which broke story) article on this: Woman Got Her Leg Caught In The Gap On An Orange Line Train And Then Begged That People Did Not Call An Ambulance Because Of The Cost.

Sign up for the free newsletter and get more breaking Boston news and news alerts like this direct to your inbox. Did we mention it was free?

Got something to add?
Sign up to post to Patch and tell your neighbors what's going on in town. Post anything from calendar events to a column about a need in your neighborhood to a public meeting folks should know about. Our philosophy is the more neighborhood watchers the better.

Photo up top screen grab of the Transit Authority YouTube video footage.