A Garland code compliance officer helped save the life of an elderly woman last week.
Uriel Villalpando, a city code enforcement officer for five years, saw Carol Donnelly yelling for help on the ground while he was patrolling an alley behind Colgate Lane on Friday afternoon.
"Everything happens for a reason,” he said. "I believe if you do a good deed for someone, it will come back in the future."
Donnelly, 74, had fallen down while feeding birds and picking tomatoes along her fence.
"Well, I kept trying to get up, and I could not get myself up,” she said. “ I could not get my legs up from underneath me.”
She was alone for two hours without the oxygen tank she needs for her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a common lung disease.
"I didn't have my air on, and I was just scared to death it was going to be a long time, and it kind of puts the fear of God in you, I'll tell you,” Donnelly said.
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Villalpando jumped her fence and quickly called 911. He stayed with her until Garland rescuers came to treat her gashes.
Donnelly said she can’t imagine where she would be if Villalpando had not saved her.
"God works in mysterious ways,” she said.
"I'm not a hero at all," Villalpando said. "I'm just a regular citizen like anybody else. I saw someone in need, and I extended my hand, you know."
