Suicidal woman saved by a hero cop and a cell phone!

A flight attendant, Averie Kenery, on stopover in Queens NY had had enough and swallowed pills in a suicide attempt. After swallowing the pills, she called her mother in Hawaii to say good-bye. Kenery didn't hang up her cell phone, so her mother grabbed another phone and began calling 911. But, because she didn't have the exact location for her daughter, 911 couldn't dispatch anyone. All the mother had was a cross street.

She and friends began dialing individual precincts and somehow she reached Detective Lopresti

Luckily Walz got in touch with Detective Lopresti who took pity on the frantic Hawaiian and agreed to help. "For some reason, he entertained my call," Walz told the News. "Here we are thousands and thousands of miles away, but he listened to us. All we had was the cross street. It wasn't even his jurisdiction."

Lopresti then went about randomly ringing doorbells near where they thought Kenery was dying. Eventually he saw another attendant leaving a building, went in and started pounding on doors and calling out Kenery's name to no avail. That is until his precinct called him.

The precinct called him because Kenery's mother, in Hawaii, still listening to her daughter's cell phone, could hear Lopresti shouting her name!

Turns out that Walz was still listening to her daughter's cellphone from Hawaii and could hear Lopresti calling her daughter's name. So the detective broke down the door of the apartment where she could hear him the clearest. However he was still unable to find the woman. So in one final attempt Walz hung up on her daughter and called back, at which point Lopresti found the woman's body, covered in a sheet and "wedged between a bed and a wall."

Kenery was taken to the hospital and recovered.

I just thought this story was awesome and wanted to share it - a little break from all the ugly news lately.

gothamist.com...

Thats horrible. That poor women, her family didn't care enough before this attempt. She wanted to end her life why should anyone stop her.

That is some TV show type scenario right there. I bet that guy feels good about himself, and he sounds like a really good person. That girl obviously is an amateur suicidalist because pills are the worst way to go. Not surprised if she comes out of it with brain or organ damage. Nice story.

reply to post by Maluhia


A very welcome change from the usual anti establishment horror stories.

The officer is a true hero and should be recognized as such for going beyond the reasonable call of duty in taking action and saving the young woman's life.

Thank you for posting this, lets hope this helps remind some folks of the good local police do for their communities daily, often without recognition or praise.

Absolutely incredible. That man is a true hero. I just feel bad that NY Daily News put that woman's picture on their site. Give her her privacy.

I'm not sure whether this is great news or not. I mean for crying out loud her picture is posted on that article! No privacy?

The 911 call that went around the world. Now that is some phone call. With all the bad cops stories it is nice to see a good cop story.

We better stop with the good cop stories coming out lately or we might lose half the members on this site who have a deep hatred for any and all law enforcement

Wow, kind of bitter sweet, eh?
Saving a life is always great news, but whatever emotional and/or psychological struggles this poor woman was dealing with that drove her to suicide, she'll be back facing the next day =/

Originally posted by jonibelle
Wow, kind of bitter sweet, eh?
Saving a life is always great news, but whatever emotional and/or psychological struggles this poor woman was dealing with that drove her to suicide, she'll be back facing the next day =/

edit on 24-7-2011 by jonibelle because: (no reason given)

No it will be even worse because now everyone has her name and picture.

But hey at-least a cop did his job. wooohooo

Suicide is a permanent solution to what is normally a temporary problem.

While I don't think it should be a crime to kill/attempt to kill oneself, anybody who thinks it's a better idea to have let someone die is shortsighted.

Get her some help, professionally and from her family, let her do what she wants after that.


Frankly, if she really wanted to simply die, I don't think she should have called her mother; of course her mom is going to do everything she can to save her child.

reply to post by Bixxi3


People should have stopped her because she was clearly not capable of making the right decisions and needed help. I take it you've never known someone who has attempted suicide, then recovered to live a better life, the life they could only imagine.

I am sick of people saying its a premaqnit solution to a tempery problem .
Some so called hero pulled me back at the last mint as well .
Well i got news for all you so called heros we DID IT intentionally if we wanted to be saved we would have called a help line .(some joke they are)
I feel bad this woman went through alot of trouble to stop the pain some hero your all the type of people who would keep a reltive on life suppory for 20 years as they sloly wast away we have enough compasion to put our dogs to sleep when there life is to pain full and yet we insist on torturing the very people we soposly love so much.
Love true love meens knowing when to let go as well.

Originally posted by xxcalbier
I am sick of people saying its a premaqnit solution to a tempery problem .
Some so called hero pulled me back at the last mint as well .
Well i got news for all you so called heros we DID IT intentionally if we wanted to be saved we would have called a help line .(some joke they are)
I feel bad this woman went through alot of trouble to stop the pain some hero your all the type of people who would keep a reltive on life suppory for 20 years as they sloly wast away we have enough compasion to put our dogs to sleep when there life is to pain full and yet we insist on torturing the very people we soposly love so much.
Love true love meens knowing when to let go as well.

If all you suicidals are getting saved at the last minute then you aren't trying hard enough.

and really? The vegetative state example? Really? That's a completely different set of circumstances that have completely different ramifications.

reply to post by Maluhia


I clicked on the article link and didn't see her picture. Either they took it off (hopefully) or there's another article everyone's referring to??

In any event, the most fitting word used by another poster regarding this story is "bittersweet" and I wholeheartedly agree. Whereas I applaud the heroic efforts to find and save this woman, it's always sad to hear of someone in such great distress.

On a final note, I couldn't help but notice how pervasive our cynicism has become. Here is a story about the heroic unselfish efforts of this policeman and his colleagues to save this woman's life (whether it's liked by some or not, the impetus for suicide is still considered to be mental illness by modern society) and within the first few posts, we had criticism of her family without knowing any specifics about the situation and whether the woman had even displayed any warning signs prior to her attempt, as well as criticism about her chosen method of suicidality. I wonder why it's the proclivity of some to be so critical of the details instead of focusing on the positives of the bigger picture?!?

Just a thought to throw out there...

Timidgal

reply to post by timidgal


That article took her pic down after people complained in the comments. But it links to the original NY Daily News article which as of 2 hours ago was still showing her picture.

reply to post by timidgal

The link in the story leads you to a Daily News article that shows her picture. I agree, the News should not have printed her picture. That's why I linked to the Gothamist story instead, even though it had fewer details. I tried to fill in the details myself.

I also hesitated about using her name, but it was all over the linked story so I didn't see the point.

I don't know her story, but I hope she was just at a very low point and now her family and friends can assist her in getting the help she needs to move forward.

reply to post by InvisibleAlbatross


Gotcha but I won't bother checking again to spare her a small piece of privacy. Thanks for the response.

Timidgal

reply to post by timidgal


Yeah, I wish I had not followed the link.

Originally posted by Maluhia
reply to post by timidgal

 

The link in the story leads you to a Daily News article that shows her picture. I agree, the News should not have printed her picture. That's why I linked to the Gothamist story instead, even though it had fewer details. I tried to fill in the details myself.

I applaud your decency.

I also hesitated about using her name, but it was all over the linked story so I didn't see the point.

Understandable...

I don't know her story, but I hope she was just at a very low point and now her family and friends can assist her in getting the help she needs to move forward.

I echo your sentiments and again,

Timidgal