Off-Duty EMT Saves Woman's Life

Kevin Hazlett was with his kids when he came upon a serious car accident and sprung into action.

Kevin Hazlett, an EMT from Shelton, is uncomfortable being called a hero. He said he was just doing his job on New Year's Day when he helped a woman who had been in a serious car crash.

Hazlett was on his way to Dunkin' Donuts, with his son and daughter in the back seat of the family minivan, when he came across a car crash on Shelton Avenue just moments after it happened.

"Heavy, heavy, heavy, extensive damage to the front of her car and on the driver's side of the car. She had hit a tree," Hazlett said.

He crawled into the crumpled car and was able to lift the woman's head up to clear her airway shortly after she had stopped breathing.

As his son and daughter looked on, Hazlett kept the woman breathing before an ambulance was able to get to the scene at the corner of Shelton Avenue and Pine Street.

"It's just what I do," Hazlett said.

The woman was still hospitalized on Tuesday at Yale-New Haven Hospital after sustaining serious injuries in the crash. 

Hazlett spoke to her by phone on Monday and said that she is groggy but she thanked him for helping her.

.Assistant Chief Joseph Laucella, of the Echo Hose Ambulance company, said everyone is proud of what Hazlett did.

"He was acting as a Good Samaritan. He was off-duty and stopped to help someone who needed it," Laucella said.

Hazlett  has been an EMT and firefighter for the 21 years, but said this rescue was his most memorable.

"Any one of us would have done it. I was just in the right place at the right time," he said.

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