San Antonio TV anchor's 'Shark Week' tip saves man

WOAI co-anchor Delaine Mathieu WOAI co-anchor Delaine Mathieu Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close San Antonio TV anchor's 'Shark Week' tip saves man 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio TV station is celebrating a quick-thinking news anchor.

Delaine Mathieu of WOAI News 4 San Antonio, used a scarf as a tourniquet to save a man's life who'd been hit on U.S. 281 in January, according to the station.

Mathieu, who co-anchors weekdays at 5 p.m., was reluctant about sharing the story on air, but received recognition Monday from her co-anchor Randy Beamer.

“She didn't want it to seem like she was patting herself on the back,” Beamer wrote. “But a man says he is alive today because of you... So I'm going to at least tell the basics of the story because we're proud of you and because it's a heck of a story.”

On Jan. 24, Paul Hernandez blew a tire on U.S. 281 near the Quarry and his car hit the median and ended up facing oncoming traffic, Beamer writes. Dazed from the accident, Hernandez got out of his vehicle and was struck by another car, which nearly severed his left leg.

Mathieu, on her way home from work, stopped to assist the man.

“While another passerby, Tech Sgt. Marc Esposito, calmed down Hernandez and tended to the severe wounds on his face, Delaine saw that Hernandez's lower leg was barely attached,” Beamer writes. “So she decided to use a scarf to tie a tourniquet around that leg, with the help of another woman who had stopped at the scene.”

Since the accident, Mathieu and Esposito have visited Hernandez in the hospital and doctors have said the tourniquet saved him from bleeding to death.

The anchor explained to Beamer on air that she picked up the tourniquet technique from “Shark Week.”

Mathieu is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and previously worked in Miami. She has won multiple journalism awards.

More Information



More info on the accident

kparker@express-news.net

Twitter: @KoltenParker