An Alabama mail carrier is being called a hero after she noticed one of the residents on her route hadn’t checked his mail last week, and found the injured man in the home where he’d been trapped for 10 days.
Cissy Cartwright, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service in Hope Hull, thought it was unlike Tommy Hope, 66, to not check his mailbox for several days, Post Master Sherry Hughes said.
Knowing Hope suffers from a bad back, Cartwright drove up the long driveway to his home in a secluded rural area. That's when she discovered Hope's front door open.
When Cartwright went to the door to call for Hope, he yelled back for her help. Hope had been on the floor, dehydrated and injured for 10 days after falling in his home on July 4, NBC station WSFA reported.
Hope, who has no immediate family nearby and was unable to reach a phone, did everything he could to survive the ten days with several broken bones.
"He's a really smart man," Hughes said. "He scooted on his back to his front door to catch rain water."
Hughes said Hope is recovering at Baptist Medical Center South in Montgomery and calls the post office every day with a new update. He is especially thankful for Cartwright.
"I knew she would come," Hughes said Hope told her. "She saved my life."
