Boston EMT Recalls Crash Victim: `She Was With Me Until the End`
April 11--Boston Emergency Medical Services EMTs Richard Berrio and Lisa Hines should have been asleep the afternoon of Nov. 26, having just worked their regular 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift. But two days before Thanksgiving, EMS had openings to fill, so they agreed to work overtime. The 2 p.m. radio report of a pedestrian struck on Olney Street in Dorchester was a call they'll never forget. In an interview with the Herald's Laurel J. Sweet, an emotional Berrio recalled the death of 7-year-old Brianna Rosales, who had been walking home from school with her mother, Grendalee Alvarado, who was critically injured in the crash that was blamed on a drunken driver.
"I knew it was bad. I mean, I could tell. There was a guy standing on the corner of Olney Street and he was pointing and crying. I noticed a hydrant knocked out and a car up on the lawn -- an SUV. It was actually eerily quiet. There were people just praying out in the street and crying. School had just let out.
"When we pulled up, I grabbed my gear and went to Brianna. There was a fence and a wall that this truck went over so I climbed up over that. There was no movement. I took out my scissors, I cut off her backpack. You know, it's the little things I remember, like how her school papers were blowing in the wind."
Berrio, 41, credited two Boston firefighters with helping him restore the mortally wounded child's breathing.
"I looked in the firefighters' eyes and they seemed to be thinking, 'We got her back, she's going to make it.' Time was critical. We got to (Boston Medical Center) and went into the trauma room. I stayed with her ... I knew these injuries were life-threatening."
Doctors went to work on Brianna as Berrio performed CPR, but she slipped away, he recalled through tears.
"I looked at her and held her hand and said a little prayer. I haven't seen everything, but I've seen a lot, and something about this little girl stuck with me and probably will for the rest of my life. Being a father of four children, I was just glad that I could be there with her. She was just a little girl, you know? She was 7. She was with me until the end and I was with her.
"I didn't want to let go. I just didn't want her mother to think her child was alone -- that somebody was there who cared."
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