When a Naval aircrewman witnessed a life-or-death moment taking place on the San Diego-Coronado Birdge last Monday, he pulled over to stop a man from leaping into the bay below. As the sailor struggled with the man attempting suicide, he screamed for someone to help him. After watching dozens of other pedestrians whizzing past, a nurse finally stopped to calm the man down until authorities arrived.
After paramedics and the California Highway Patrol arrived on scene, the sailor and the nurse were urged back to their cars and asked to exit the bridge, giving them no time to exchange names. However, they were reunited on the social media forum Reddit hours later.
The nurse posted a message to the unknown Navy man, addressing the post to “the Navy dude who prevented a suicide on the Coronado bridge today.” Continuing her message to the sailor, the woman explains that she was the nurse who stopped and regretted that she didn’t get a chance to commend him for his service as they were shooed away from the scene. Wrapping up her message, the nurse expressed her gratitude saying, “you almost certainly saved someone’s life today. As a nurse and a human person, I’m really grateful that you were there to help.”
With no way of knowing if the sailor would find her comments, the nurse posted on Reddit anyway and was lucky when the sailor’s roommate found the post and alerted him. The aircrewman responded with,
“That was me! Hey Nurse! I’ve been commending you all day! I had no idea what to say to this man except for holding him so he couldn’t do it…I was glad to have someone like you there. Thank you so much for stopping to help when so many people just drove on by!”
The anonymous sailor turned out to be Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Pisano, but the nurse’s name has not been released. Pisano says he made sure to get a good grip on the man’s arm so he couldn’t get any closer to the ledge. He didn’t think to grab his phone in his rush to reach the man and was left attempting to wave down motorists in hopes that someone would stop to help. Once the nurse arrived, she remained calm and collected, knowing exactly what to say to calm the man down.
The San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge has been the site of roughly 300 suicides from 1960 to 2015, with nine bridge suicides so far this year. Local residents have begun exploring options for installing a barrier on the bridge to deter jumpers. Pisano says he encourages everyone not to be a bystander and to stand up when you see something that doesn’t look right. The Reddit thread received over 100 comments from users praising these two heroes for their work.
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