A 79-year-old woman, dressed only in a nightgown and slippers, kept a neighbor who fell through thin ice in a backyard creek alive by holding her head above water until emergency workers arrived.
Ann Cyran, 67, ventured onto the ice to look for her cats Wednesday when the ice covering a creek broke. Neighbor Claire Fleming, alerted by her dogs' wild barking, went outside to see what was wrong."I saw her head going under," said Fleming, who knelt over a bulkhead and held Cyran's face above the frigid waters until help arrived. Another neighbor called 911.
Cyran was unconscious when Mastic Beach Fire Chief Jim Falbo pulled her from the water behind her home in the Long Island community of Shirley. She was transferred by helicopter to University Hospital in Stony Brook, where she was listed in stable condition this morning.
"I'm no heroine," Fleming said. "When something like this happens you don't think of yourself, just the person who (you) are trying to help."