Mehmet Oz arrives on the red carpet for the closing ceremony of the 52nd annual Monte Carlo Television Festival in Monte Carlo, Monaco on June 14, 2012. UPI/David Silpa |
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SOUTHAMPTON, Pa., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Television's Dr. Oz made headlines over the weekend after assisting at the scene of a nasty car crash outside Philadelphia, emergency responders said.
Heart surgeon Mehmet Oz, the television health advice guru, was driving in Bucks County Saturday when a vehicle at an intersection a few cars ahead of him was struck head-on while trying to make a left turn. Oz leapt from his vehicle and pried open a door to help an injured woman get out of her smoking car. Shortly after performing the extraction the vehicle rolled down a hill and into a steep ravine, Philly.com reported.
"The door was stuck, so I pried it open. I asked her if she was OK. She looked over at me and said, 'Oh, Dr. Oz.' It was surreal to have that happen, especially in that setting," he said. "I pulled her from the car because at that point, it was steaming and there was oil dripping. It eventually started rolling back down the hill there and collided with another car before rolling into a deep ravine."
There were no fatalities associated with the crash, which Oz said surprised him after seeing the violent collision, LevittownNow.com said.
Chris Simpson, a volunteer firefighter who was at the scene, tweeted a picture with Oz afterward, which was how word got out of the celebrity doctor's involvement.
"First on scene to a multi-vehicle multi-injury accident doing patient care side by side with Dr. Oz," Simpson wrote.
The incident wasn't the first where Oz was called on to help in an emergency. He was in the lobby of the Manhattan building where his show is taped when a taxi jumped the curb and struck a tourist walking in the area.
Oz and others applied a tourniquet but the woman's leg later had to be amputated.
"I have bad karma when I travel. It's like the classic 'Is there a doctor on the plane?' I was a bit sheepish about letting people know about this one," he said of Saturday's incident. "The most heroic person at the scene was a pregnant woman who's an EMT. She's nine months pregnant, but jumped in to help."
Oz went to medical school in Philadelphia and his wife's family lives just a few miles from the crash scene. He said he was there visiting friends when the crash happened.
