A California postal worker’s quick decision to use his belt as a tourniquet helped a man who had severely cut his arm with a chainsaw.
US Postal Service letter carrier Fernando Garcia made a heroic effort to stop a man’s arm from bleeding after he accidentally cut himself with a chainsaw in Norwalk, California, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Norwalk Station said in a Twitter post.
Garcia was on his daily route in Norwalk on Friday when heard the man’s family’s calling for help, police said.
“When he turned around, I saw that he was holding his left arm. And he was just covered in blood,” Garcia told CNN affiliate KCAL.
The mailman quickly looped his belt around the man’s bleeding arm, wrapping it as tightly as he could and held it there. Garcia got the idea to use his belt as a tourniquet from the movies, he said to KCAL.
The sheriff’s department lauded Garcia as an “every day hero” in its tweet, with several community members commenting their support for his brave actions.
The family of the injured man told CNN he was released from the hospital on Sunday. He is starting to regain movement in his hand, according to his niece, Kelsey Cabral.
“We are very proud of letter carrier Fernando Garcia and thankful for his swift, heroic action in helping a customer in dire need of assistance,” according to a Postal Service statement sent to CNN. “Our postal carriers truly are the eyes and ears in the community.”
Garcia had to throw away his belt as there was blood on it. KCAL reported that after the man was taken to the hospital, Garcia purchased a new shirt and belt and continued on his mail route.
