A Distressed Grandma Misdialed A Stranger But He Came To Help Anyway
When an elderly woman in distress made a chance call to the BMW dealership in Stratstone, UK, Dang Vuong turned the experience into an incredible act of kindness.
The sales manager was alerted by the receptionist on Sunday morning that a call had been made by an 80-year-old woman who had slipped in her bathroom.
The woman intended to call her daughter, but Vuong, 34, didn’t think twice about the mistake and immediately went to her home.
“My initial thought was that I needed to help her, and make sure she is OK. I made sure our receptionist stayed on [the] line until I arrived,” said Dang.
He ran to the house about 3 miles away. His receptionist stayed on the line.
“I thought, get her address and try to get there as fast as I could. Luckily it wasn’t that far away, ” Vuong said.
Vuong found the front door of the house unlocked, and entered the residence. There, he found her on the bathroom floor, her face bloodied, and the tub overflowing.
“I felt like I had to go and help because I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her and I didn’t even try. If it were my grandparent, how would I feel if she was left alone?” he said.
The woman was lying on the floor in the living room, her face bloody from a cut she sustained when she fell.
“She was quite panicked – especially being [with] a stranger in her house. I just quietly asked her if she was alright to see if she was hurt anywhere at all,” Vuong said.
He picked her up, placed her on a couch and cleaned her face.
“I got a blanket and just kind of covered her legs up and made sure she was warm and that she was alright. I took the phone off her and rang her granddaughter.”
This time, it was the right number. The granddaughter, Sara Tweedy, answered.
“At first I was shocked as I didn’t know who was in my nanas house,” Tweedy said. “Then when Dang explained himself and what he had done, I was so happy he had made time to go and see her. I was so grateful.”
When the woman’s granddaughter, Sara Tweedy, heard about the heroic act of kindness Dang performed for her grandmother.
She posted her thanks on Facebook, garnering 39,000 likes so far and prompting what Vuong calls a massive media response.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to the manager at BMW Silverlink for helping my nana today. After falling in her house this morning she tried ringing my Mam, however, she got 2 digits wrong which lead to her ringing BMW. The manager got in his car and went straight to her house where he found her on the floor and her bath which was almost ready to overflow. He picked her up and cleaned her mouth which was cut and was able to contact us through her Mobile while he stayed with her until my Mam got there. We can’t thank him enough for what he done for her, there really is some caring and thoughtful people out there that don’t get recognised for what the do. Hopefully someone will see this that knows him and he can see how grateful we are! I will be calling in to thank him in person too. Feel free to share this post 😇. ”
Closer to home, there’s an offer of a free pizza. But he’s not quick to accept gifts.
“I’ve grown up to not expect anything for free,” said the modest car salesman whose parents were born in Vietnam.
“It’s nice to help somebody because you never know, someone might have to give you a hand somewhere down the line.”
