How A Young Couple Helped A Man In His 60s Save His Injured Daughter During The Itaewon Halloween Emergency

On the night of October 29, Mr. Jang received an urgent phone call from his daughter, calling for help, saying, “Everybody next to me is dead.” Thinking that he heard her wrong, he tried to ask for more details, but the line cut off.

Jang’s daughter, who is in her 20s, had gone to Itaewon to celebrate Halloween with her friends. After her cryptic phone call, he was trying to figure out what exactly had happened when he noticed the messages she had sent.

Daughter: Can you hear me

Daughter: ??

Jang: What?

Jang: Where are you?

Jang: Did something happen?

Daughter: I almost died and came back to life.

Daughter: I think my legs are broken.

Daughter: There’s a crowd crush accident in Itaewon

Daughter: I was going home but I got crushed at the bottom

Daughter: All the people here are dead

Daughter: Save me

Daughter: I’m scared

The texts alarmed Jang that something extraordinary had happened. So, he immediately took a taxi from his home at Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-go, to the Itaewon police substation, where he knew his daughter was.

On his way, Jang tried to look up what had happened, but it was difficult to grasp since there was no news report about the incident yet. While he was in the taxi, at around 11:30 pm, reports started to come out that 50 people collapsed due to cardiac arrest at Itaewon.

Due to traffic control, the roads to Itaewon were blocked. Desperate and alarmed, Mr. Jang got out of the taxi and ran around 1.5 kilometers to get to his daughter. At the police substation, four people, including his daughter, were lying injured. Her condition demanded immediate hospitalization, but since the priority of the police and the fire department was to attend to the deceased, Jang realized it would take at least four to five hours for them to get any help.

Since the deceased were the priority, our turn wasn’t going to come. But my daughter was in so much pain and the streets were blocked, so ordinary cars couldn’t pass through in that situation. In the end, I carried my daughter on my back and ran over 1 km in the direction where I hoped I could find a taxi.

— Mr. Jang, Newsis

But even after running for a while, he couldn’t find a taxi that would save help his daughter. Jang then decided to seek help from the private vehicles passing by. That’s when a man and a woman in their 30s approached him. The two gave them a ride in their white BMW car to a nearby hospital, but the hospital was at full capacity with previous casualties from the accident.

The two strangers stuck beside him till the end. When the nearby hospital couldn’t admit Jang’s daughter, they drove them to another hospital near their home.

The young man and woman helped us so much even when we got to the hospital, getting us a wheelchair and helping me move my daughter… It took us several hours before we were able to arrive at the hospital where we were admitted. I tried to give them the small amount of money I had to thank them but they refused to take it and gave it back to me before leaving.

— Mr. Jang, Newsis

At the emergency room, Jang’s daughter received treatment and was transferred to a general hospital after her condition got better. She suffered kidney damage from muscle loss because she was crushed for a long time. Currently, she cannot walk and has a cast on her right leg.

Mr. Jang shared the story on social media, thanking the two strangers for their help that night. He mentioned the color and model of their car to specify the people he wanted to thank. The story has touched many netizens who praised the pair for their kindness.

• “The people in the BMW… They’re really good people. I’m so, so touched. I hope they get awarded and get blessed too.”
• “The good deed of these beautiful people is making me cry. I hope that person’s daughter makes a full recovery.”
• “So grateful for everyone who helped. Get well soon.”
• “They are really beautiful people. I hope everyone recovers soon.”
• “I am tearing up.”