Sha’Kyra Aughtry and her boyfriend were out walking in Buffalo, New York, when they heard a man screaming for help during the deadly storm that had hit the region. Despite the treacherous conditions, Sha’Kyra and her partner decided to take the elderly man inside and help him with his wounds.
“He was so frozen that I actually had to blow-dry his hands in order to separate them from the bags he was carrying with him,” Aughtry said in a Facebook Live video. She also noted that Joe White was likely suffering from gangrene and could potentially lose his fingers if he did not receive medical attention soon.
The Good Samaritan called for assistance but wasn’t able to get any for over nine hours after first making contact with authorities. This roughly translates to around 1:00 p.m. on the second day of trying. “They keep telling me I was on a list. But I don’t want him to die over here!” she exclaimed in frustration during the live stream post made at 9:26 p.m..
Luckily Joe White eventually received medical attention and was transported safely to a hospital in Buffalo. According to one of White’s coworkers, Mr. White is mentally disabled and didn’t understand how serious the situation really was until it was too late. As such, he had no family or friends nearby who could have helped him out sooner than Sha’Kyra did.
Chris Dearing, Joe White’s coworker of 40 years, created two GoFundMe pages in order to raise money for both medical bills and reward Sha’kyra’s selfless act of heroism–the page asking people to donate more money directly for Sha’kyra has surpassed $106,000 at the time of writing this article. That’s amazing! Chris wrote: “She did all this without any thought of reward, but she deserves one… She’s a hard-working young mother, and I want her family to feel supported because of what she did for my friend Joe.”
At the time of this writing, over $50,000 had been raised for Mr. White’s medical bills as well as Sha’kyra Rain Aughtry receiving well-deserved donations for coming through when no one else would help Joe! Both parties are sure to be having a very happy new year thanks to this incredible show of compassion during an otherwise devastating natural disaster that resulted in over 30 deaths across Buffalo alone.
