An excited tourist's trip to New York took a tragic turn when she was accidentally hit by a taxi cab and lost her foot. INSIDE EDITION has the latest details.
She's the beautiful young woman maimed in a horrific taxi crash in New York, and the latest news is heartbreaking—doctors cannot re-attach her severed foot.
And now, the full story of Sian Green's tragic accident is emerging, with one nagging question—could her foot have been saved?
Dr. Alton Barron is an orthopedic trauma specialist at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He says the nature of Green's injury made saving her foot all but impossible.
Dr. Barron told INSIDE EDITION, "There are only rare instances that a foot or ankle, lower leg can actually be saved once it's severed."
"The protective soft tissue envelope that's around the bones is mangled to such a degree that it's impossible to repair it," said Dr. Barron.
It was Green's first day in New York. This 23-year-old British tourist was so excited about coming to the Big Apple, she posted a countdown on her Instagram page, ticking off the days till her trip began and saying, "New York, plzzzzz hurry up!"
But the trip of a lifetime turned into a nightmare for Green, whose foot was severed when a cab accidentally plowed into her as she was eating a hot dog near Rockefeller Center.
Plumber David Justino stripped off his tool belt and made a tourniquet on Green's leg. He made a second tourniquet for her other mangled leg with a dog's leash given to him by a passerby.
Justino explained, "I was the first person there. I wrapped the tourniquet on her leg. I made a half-hitch, and just locked in it and gave it to her to hold it, and she held it tight. I started screaming for ice and water. The vendors started bringing bags of ice."
In the midst of the mayhem, an only-in-New York moment happened as the popular Dr. Oz rushed out of his TV studio while the plumber was holding the tourniquet.
Justino said, "I said, 'I'm not moving until a doctor gets here.' He said, 'I'm a doctor.' I looked up, I saw Dr. Oz.. I said, 'What should I do?' He said, 'You're doing it.' "
The severed foot was placed into a cooler of ice provided by a hot dog vendor. At this point, a crucial step was missed. Dr. Barron says the foot should have been wrapped in a moist towel and a plastic bag before going into the ice.
"The critical component is avoiding direct contact with the ice so we don't effectively frostbite and freeze the tissue," said Dr. Barron.
The foot probably could not have been saved anyway, and those Good Samaritans did save the life of a young woman who dreamed of coming to New York, but never dreamed her trip would take such a tragic turn.
