Woman seeks good Samaritans

#Middlebury #Woodbury

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Suzanne Cooper, left, with her daughter, Erica Kerber, in a photo taken about 2 years ago. (Photo courtesy Suzanne Cooper)

Suzanne Cooper, 65, of Woodbury often walks on Tranquility Road in Middlebury. That familiar walk turned into a nightmare Sunday, August 30, at about 10:30 a.m., when she tripped and fell face first on the pavement.

As she recovers from her fall, she is thinking about the three men who stopped to help her that day. She wants to thank them in person. “I’m just so grateful for those people who stopped and helped me,” she said.

That day, as usual, her husband dropped her off at the trolley stop at the intersection with Route 64 so she could walk the two miles back to their home. Shortly after he drove off, she was face down on the pavement on Tranquility Road.

Suzanne isn’t sure exactly how she fell, but she remembers two cars were passing, and she went to move farther off the road. Somehow, she tripped over the curb and fell on the road, doing what some call a “face-plant.” She said she was lying in the road with her face in the road. “I creamed my face,” she said. “I was worried about my teeth.”

She managed to pick up her cell phone and move to the side of the road, where she sat, in shock and bleeding badly, her face already beginning to swell. She called her husband, but he was still on his way home, where his cell phone was sitting on the charger. By the sixth time she called, he had made it home and said he’d be back as quickly as he could.

Meanwhile, a man out for a walk initially walked by, but then realized Suzanne wasn’t just sitting by the road making a phone call. He turned around and came back to her. He didn’t know it, but she was watching car after car drive by without stopping, and she was feeling very scared.

“I was worried I’d lose consciousness,” she said. When the man came over and talked to her, it helped keep her awake. He offered to call 911 and began talking calmly with her. She said his calmness was wonderful.

At this point, she was lying down. She noticed a truck towing a boat pull over, and two men ran up with a handful of Dunkin’ Donuts napkins and a bottle of cold water. “They were very attentive and poured the water on the napkins and I held them on my face. They encouraged me to stay awake. This is exactly what I needed. I was an EMT for 20 years and have never been on the other side before,” she said.

All three men waited with her until her husband arrived and then helped her get into the car. “As I was leaving for the hospital they wished me well and said they would pray for me. I am so thankful for these men and would love to thank them and let them know that even though I look like I’ve been in a fight I am fine,” she said.

Suzanne said her forehead and chin are swollen and black and blue and she has two black eyes and scratches all over her nose. Her teeth are sore, but none were broken. The doctors at Waterbury Hospital who treated her were wonderful, she said. They did a CAT scan and determined she has soft tissue damage but no broken bones, and she didn’t even need stitches.

She said she felt lucky she didn’t have to go to work looking as she does at the moment. She retired from her job as assistant town clerk in Woodbury this past January. “It’s been quite a year,” she said.

She really wants to personally thank the three men who helped her. If you are one of the men who helped her, or if you know who they are, please email mbisubmit@gmail.com or call 203-577-6800 so the newspaper can help her get in touch with you.