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Backus Hospital Heroes Honored for Brave Act

July 19, 2023

The City of Norwich honored two Hartford HealthCare colleagues for their heroic acts during a fiery car crash recently on Route 2 in Norwich.

The quick-thinking duo, traveling in separate vehicles, were on their way to work at Backus Hospital when they came upon the fiery scene. Without thinking twice they immediately went into the smoking wreckage to search for victims.

“They put their own lives on the line to save two people and a family dog,” Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom says. “The Rose City is proud of them for their courage.”

The mayor read a proclamation declaring July 17 as Dr. Alex Miano and Amy Jodoin Day in Norwich.

“The message is that it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the human thing,” says Alexander Miano, MD, who is also a psychiatrist with Hartford HealthCare’s Behavioral Health Network. “It was just an act of human kindness.”

Route 2 in Norwich is packed with Hartford HealthCare colleagues going to and from work. And what started as a normal Wednesday morning for Alexander Miano and Respiratory Therapist Amy Jodoin –turned into a commute they’ll never forget.

Miano and Jodoin were both heading into work just before 8 a.m. on June 21, when two cars in front of them crashed into the highway median. While cars veered away from the crash, Miano and Jodoin pulled over to help.

Miano approached a badly damaged SUV, where an elderly woman was trapped in the driver’s seat. An elderly man was stuck in the passenger seat next to her.

“The man on the passenger side was significantly bleeding from one of his legs, so the first thing I did was get my necktie around his leg and make a tourniquet,” says Miano.

Jodoin, helped the woman in the second vehicle not once but twice when she returned into the burning vehicle for her personal belongings and her dog.

“I pulled the curtain airbag out of the way so she could get her dog,” Jodoin says.

During the recognition event, local firefighters and American Ambulance crews were also recognized, along with a construction worker who Jodoin says told her to move her car just seconds before the SUV exploded.