by: John Rodriguez
When you’re riding the New York City subways, you can find signs posted to walls or on neon flashboards advising subway riders to stand clear of the ledges to avoid falling onto the tracks. But what happens when you have no control over yourself and fall onto the tracks? Well for Paul Torres, 51, not only did he survive the fall which occurred four years but it surprisingly saved his life.
Walking out of a subway car at Penn Station, Torres found himself rolling on the subway tracks after he collapsed. With a No. 2 train approaching the station, the Bronx native was able to scurry into a nearby by drainage trench where he waited the passing train out. Torres survived the harrowing situation without any injury.
After Emergency workers lifted Torres from the track, they raced him to Bellevue hospital. During the trip Torres was coming in-and-out of consciousness, and it was later discovered and revealed to Torres by doctors at Bellevue that Torres had a malignant brain tumor. Three months prior to his seizure, Torres was told by his doctor to get a MRI since he had been suffering from headaches for over a year. Torres never went to get the MRI. So the fall which could have claimed his life, ended up saving it.
Undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy for two years, Torres announces he now has a perfect bill of health. When talking about that day four years ago, “I guess it was my lucky day, I don’t believe in God or fate, but let’s just say things were working out for me on that day,” said Torres about the March 7th, 2007 incident.
Although he is now a retired clerk on disability who used to work for a Manhattan law firm, Torres is treating every day as a gift. Torres now spends his time tending to his garden of lilacs, irises, and lilies in his backyard in Tremont and still enjoys his beloved New York Yankees. “If I had died of that tumor, I would never have had seen the Yankees win the World Series in 2009, I never would have seen [Derek] Jeter’s 3,000th hit.”
Apart from enjoying his days gardening and watching sports, Torres is working on a memoir containing all his experiences in hopes of spreading his word to other New Yorkers. Torres encourages people to live each day like it’s their last. The incident on the Penn Station subway impacted Torres so much he claims, “It’s changed my life, I wish I had more days like that one.”
