When 88-year-old Evelyn Apostoleres slammed her Chrysler Cirrus into a telephone pole along Olden Avenue in Ewing Monday, no one knew she had a brain tumor.
Deshawn Feliciano saw it all happen and rushed to the wreckage when the elderly woman's car caught fire.
"Flames were kind of getting bigger. So I pulled her out by her shoulder and a guy helped me lift her and carried her to the median on the side of the road," Feliciano said.
Evelyn Apostoleres suffered a broken leg, broken ribs and other injuries and spent several days in the ICU at Capital health Regional Medical Center. That's where doctors also discovered the elderly woman was suffering from a previously undiagnosed brain tumor, which may have contributed to or caused the accident.
Janice Ribsam and her sister Joy own a Ewing flower shop and have been tenants of Ms. Apostoleres' for over 30 years.
"Once we heard that it was a brain tumor, that this was the problem she was having, I don't think that she even knew she had it," Joy said.
Evelyn has no children, but the Ribsam sisters see her every day and noticed lately she seemed to be slipping.
"For the past few months, as Joy said, she hasn't been fully capable of telling us what's going on," Janice said.
The Ribsams are thankful that Deshawn Feliciano was there to rescue their landlord from the burning, mangled car.
The union laborer and father of 7 says he's glad he could help.
"She just needed some help and I just did it. You don't think of no hero stuff or nothing like that, you just react," Deshawn said.
Feliciano says the best part is how proud his kids are that their dad was a Good Samaritan.
