Michigan sheriff’s deputy leaps into moving car to rescue 63-year-old driver in medical distress

It’s true not all heroes wear capes. A Michigan sheriff’s deputy didn’t need one as she leapt into the window of a moving car on a busy highway to rescue a 63-year-old driver suffering from a medical emergency.

The viral video circulating online is from an incident that occurred Sept. 12 in Mount Clemens, just outside of Detroit.

According to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, deputies Nicole Miron and Anthony Gross were dispatched after receiving calls of an erratic driver in the area.

“It’s a typical call. We get a lot of ‘be on the lookouts for possible drunk drivers,’” Miron said.

But after seeing the silver GMC Sierra swerving and hitting the curb but only driving slowly, Miron said she knew something was off.

“The vehicle wasn’t responding. The driver wasn’t responding to us. He wasn’t going very fast. It was about 5 miles an hour, so it wasn’t like he was evading us or trying to get away. It was just kind of like he didn’t realize we were behind him,” she said.

“I had him pull up next to the vehicle so that we could kind of get a visual on what was going on, and I could tell it was an elderly male in the vehicle driving. It seemed as if he was having some sort of medical issue.”

With time quickly running out, Miron and Gross made a snap decision to try and prevent other drivers from getting hurt.

“It was like spur of the moment, just feeling everything out, and then we finally just decided on it, like, ‘Hey, this is what we are going to do,’” Gross said.

Miron and Gross pulled up next to the vehicle with the unresponsive driver and attempted to break the glass window on the driver’s side.

That didn’t work, but Miron said the noise brought the driver back to consciousness and he was able to lower the window.

The car stopped for a brief second when the driver hit the brakes.

“And at that point, I let them know. I said, ‘I’m gonna jump in the vehicle, so I have to ride over and put the vehicle in park,” Miron added.

She made the daring jump in just a matter of seconds.

Once inside the car, Miron put the vehicle in park and was able to call for medical backup.

“I used his phone to call his next contact in there that would have been listed. I just let them know kind of what happened. And I asked his medical history to see what was going on, to ... explain more of what we were dealing with,” Miron said.

The driver was taken to a nearby hospital and has since recovered, according to Miron.

When asked if she was fearful about making the jump, Miron said she didn’t think twice.

“I guess I was just willing to do whatever I had to do at that point to stop them, because we were running out of options. So I guess you weigh out the situation, just eliminate each one that’s not going to work and use what works.”

Still, the newly found viral success has been a bit unexpected for both Gross and Miron.

“We’re a little bit overwhelmed, but I mean to us, I don’t feel like it was as crazy,” she said. “But after the fact, looking back, I think we we looked at each other like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe we just did that.’”