Add The New York Post on Google The heroic EMT who rushed into action to save a suspected overdosing Knicks fan at the team’s ticker tape parade last week got a surprise honor, as city officials unexpectedly gave her a first-of-its-kind award for bravery.
Simone Kelly, 24, got the first-ever Health Commissioner’s Award for Lifesaving Action this week — just days after the New Jersey native went viral for her heart-stopping courage.
“It’s an honor. I haven’t been able to tell the magnitude of everything going on and how widespread the story has been reaching, but this really cemented that this is larger than I even realized,” Kelly told The Post.
City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin had invited Kelly to the Tweed Courthouse Tuesday for what she thought was a discussion on harm reduction and addiction services in the five boroughs.
But during a tour of the old Tammany Hall building, the health boss surprised her with the award that he created just for her “to thank her for her decisive action to save the life of a New Yorker,” Martin said.
The kicker, however, was a personal recommendation letter that Martin wrote himself on behalf of Kelly, imploring her dream medical school to admit her as a future student.
“Touching isn’t the right word. It was unbelievable to read the words. He was writing things like, ‘These skills and everything that I saw is something that I would assume a seasoned clinician had — not a pre-med undergrad student,'” Kelly said, saying she teared up at the gesture.
“So that was just the heavy, heavy, strong words,” she continued.
“It was just weird to hop right back on the subway afterwards and be fangirling in my head. Messing up the turnstile and little things like that really humbled me and brought me back down just because I was getting so excited!”
The support has been a whirlwind for Kelly, who was watching the Knicks parade down the Canyon of Heroes from her perch on a city Sanitation truck when the incident unraveled.
The full-time student studying neuroscience at Drew University and several others rushed to his aid, and Kelly immediately identified his shallow breathing and pinpoint pupils as telltale signs of an opioid overdose, she said.
Fortunately, someone in the crowd was carrying Narcan and tossed it to Kelly, who works 60 hours a month as a volunteer EMT with New Jersey’s South Orange Rescue Squad.
Incredible video of the rescue captured the rescue, including the administering of the anti-overdose treatment and Kelly rapidly rubbing the man’s chest to test his unresponsiveness.
She even had to deal with the man shooting up at some point and grabbing her, making multiple attempts to plant a kiss on her face.
Offers from strangers to help her secure a spot in medical school are still pouring in a week later, Kelly said, adding that she has her eyes on New York University, Columbia University, University of Arizona, Tulane University and others.
“It’s insane. It is unfathomable. And I keep having to pinch myself,” said Kelly.
