Med Student Who Saved Woman's Life: 'Guardian Angel Put Me There'

Matt Dopps demonstrates how he and two others lifted a sports utility vehicle to free a Hamtramck woman whose arm was crushed in an accident that Dopps witnessed. He performed emergency lifesaving techniques, saving the woman’s life, doctors said. (Screenshot via WJBK-TV)

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With each beat of her heart, blood sprayed from Azra Muhic’s severed artery.

“I knew it was a critical situation,” medical student Matt Dopps, who happened to be at precisely the right place at precisely the right time Saturday morning, told WJBK-TV.

Dopps wa enroute to Detroit from Royal Oak on I-75 when the sports utility vehicle in front of him fishtailed, lost control, struck a median and flipped over twice. Somehow, Muhic, a passenger, got her arm caught in an open window. When the vehicle came to a rest, Muchic’s arm was pinned, and two other good Samaritans helped Dopps lift up the SUV and free her.

Dopps’ medical training told him that at the rate Muhic was losing blood, she would die if he didn’t act quickly. He felt around what was left of her arm until he found the artery, then stopped the flow of blood until an ambulance arrived.

Throughout the ordeal, he tried to keep Muhic calm.

“She kept looking at what was left of her arm and she kept asking me ‘Am I going to lose my arm?’ ” Dopps said. “It was breaking my heart, because I knew that she was. There was very little of her arm left at that point.”

Muhic, a recent graduate of Hamtramck High School, is expected to recover. Emergency room doctors said Dopps’ quick response saved the woman’s life.

Dopps had a tearful reunion Monday with Muhic, whose family now considers him part of their extended clan. Muhic remains hospitalized at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where she has undergone two surgeries and has one more ahead of her. She will be fitted with a prosthetic arm.

“She recognized me and we both just broke down and cried,” Dopps said. “We had some nice moments. I was able to give her a hug.”

The experience was emotional for Dopps, whose Facebook profile lists him as a medical student at Midwestern University at Downers Grove, IL, and a student in clinic perfusion at William Beaumont Hospital.

“She must have had a guardian angel around her that day that just put me at that spot in that moment,” he said.

Muhic’s parents, Ajla and Adna, set up a GoFundMe account to help pay mounting medical bills. More than $23,600 has been raised in two days, including $100 from Dopps.

“You are brave like a Lion young lady!” he wrote. “I’m confident you will accomplish great things in the future. Your new friend, Matt.”