By Lauren Young
Staff Writer
A tragedy has turned into a Christmas miracle for Baldwinsville resident Heidi Woods, whose life was saved by an unknown off-duty police officer earlier this month after her car crashed due to icy roads.
Days following the accident, Woods took to social media searching for the identity of her hero with the headline, “For Christmas I want one thing, to identify the off-duty police officer who saved my life.” Days later, the Manlius Police Department notified her on their Facebook that it was off-duty Manlius police Lieutenant Jeffrey Slater who helped save her life that snowy night.
On Thursday, Dec. 28, Woods finally was able to meet her hero at the Manlius Police Station and thank him in person. “There are some good people in this world,” said Woods.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Woods, with a noticeable forehead scar and huge smile, hugged Slater upon meeting him for the first time and thanked him for helping her that night.
“There’s not a lot I do remember,” recalled Woods. “I was driving to an appointment and I had just left work. I was going down the road and my car started to fishtail, and I must’ve hit a patch of slush, because I started to swerve onto oncoming traffic.”
After losing consciousness, she awoke for a brief second and saw a man. “He told me he was an off-duty police officer and that he was there to help me,” said Woods. Next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital bed having stiches placed in her head.
Woods was unaware of how visibly significant her injures were, until she took a picture of herself. “I realized, ‘Wow, this is a lot worse than I thought,’” she said.
Until her doctor entered the room, she was also unaware of how life-threatening the injuries were. “There was a lot going on in my head, and I didn’t know what exactly happened. It wasn’t until the doctor came in to tell me that if it wasn’t for the officer, I would have bled out,” she said, because EMS would have not arrived at the scene fast enough to save her.
On the afternoon of the crash, Slater was driving down that same icy road with his wife and three children. At around 4:30 p.m., Slater noticed a wrecked blue Chevrolet Sonic crashed by the side of the road. Slater’s wife called 911 and he walked over to check on the status of the victim inside.
“It was pretty obvious she had a pretty significant head injury,” said Slater. “Fortunately I carry a first aid kit in my car … and fortunately I had a gauze roll.” Slater proceeded to park his car “like a patrol car to divert traffic” and create a barrier, he said.
After witnessing Woods’ severe head injury, he wrapped her head in gauze before EMS and the fire department could arrive.
“There’s so much bad in the world, and so much hate for police officers,” said Woods. “I just wanted to thank him.” Woods added that having a young son made even more of an impact for her. “I’m not leaving a small child behind.”
Manlius Police Chief Michael Crowell and several other police officers stood by their colleague on Dec. 28 during the reunion with the woman he saved.
“I am very proud of all our people; and I am very pleased that Lt. Slater was there to help Heidi that night,” said Crowell,
“The fact that I was or wasn’t working was irrelevant to me,” said Slater, who was promoted to lieutenant in 2011. “To me, it was doing what every person should do, regardless of profession.”
As good things come in small packages, Slater said that being prepared was essential, and that every vehicle should carry a first aid kit in case of an emergency. “Right after the accident I went to Target to pick up another gauze roll,” he said.
He also noted that multiple people continued driving by the wrecked car.
As most commuters are too often consumed with the daily grind, Slater said he wanted to remind the community that “taking only five minutes out of your day can really make a huge impact,” possibly even save a life.
