{"id":2083,"date":"2011-06-25T08:24:48","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T12:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2011-06-25T08:28:24","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T12:28:24","slug":"college-student-lifts-car-off-trapped-man-as-wife-pleads-for-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/06\/college-student-lifts-car-off-trapped-man-as-wife-pleads-for-a-miracle.html","title":{"rendered":"Student lifts 3,500-lb. Cadillac as trapped truck driver’s wife pleads for a miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod, bring an angel to my side,\u201d prayed the desperate, screaming wife as she struggled to lift a car off of her husband\u2019s chest. \u201cHelp me!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Danous Estenor (photo courtesy of University of South Florida)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the parking lot of the Bull\u2019s Den Cafe near the University of South Florida, tow truck driver Pedro Arzola, 34, was pinned under the right front tire of a 1990 Cadillac Seville owned by Chris Merrick, a cook at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

When preparing to tow the broken-down vehicle to a repair shop, Arzola remembers in a bit of a blur that the car somehow lurched forward, knocking him down.<\/p>\n

It dragged him about 10 feet, one tire\u00a0pinning his chest.<\/p>\n

His wife, Maria Uribe, was napping in the cab of her husband’s truck when it lurched and she suddenly heard shouting.<\/p>\n

It was “like a horror movie,\u201d she told the Tampa Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

She leaped out and futilely began trying to help Merrick and dishwasher Marcus Baker lift the car off of her husband.\u00a0She screamed for help. They couldn\u2019t lift the 3,500-pound Cadillac.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria says she called out to God for what \u201cin Spanish, we say, ‘milagro.’\u201d A miracle. She desperately needed a miracle.\u00a0\u201cThere was a lot of blood,” Maria told the Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

College student Danous Estenor pulled into the restaurant parking lot. He was hungry, he remembers, but for some unknown had an extra urgency that evening to go to the cafe. He shrugs, unable to explain it.<\/p>\n

In the parking lot,\u00a0the\u00a0communications major heard Maria screaming for help.<\/p>\n

“I could just see his legs,” remembers Estenor, 21, the son of immigrants from Haiti. “The car is crushing him. He’s not moving. I’m thinking, ‘Oh, God, this guy is going to die.'”<\/p>\n

“I saw a lady trying to lift a car all by herself,” he told a reporter at the Palm Beach Post.<\/em> “I walked to the side where she was and saw a gentleman’s legs sticking out on the ground. His legs weren’t moving so I didn’t know how long he had been under the car or if he was still alive. I tried to lift the car in the middle, near the doors, but I couldn’t get it. So I backed up for a second and went toward the back of the car, by the back tire, where the jack goes.”<\/p>\n

“I tried to lift the car,”\u00a0remembers the\u00a06-foot-3, 295-pound student who works out with the University of South Florida football\u00a0team.\u00a0“When I first tried, it didn’t budge.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, he said a little prayer. He\u2019s big, but not enormous. He hopes to compete for a starting spot next fall as a red-shirted junior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI backed up,\u201d he says. \u201cI don’t know. But I felt this energy come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He took a deep breath. \u201cThat’s when I felt extra strength, and I went to try to lift again. This time I lifted the car up, and the next thing you know the gentlemen is out, on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. Maybe somebody helped him out. I don’t know. I was just concentrating on trying to get the car up as high as I could.”<\/p>\n

Arzola suffered a dislocated shoulder and other minor injuries. He recovered fully and was able to return to work two weeks later.<\/p>\n

Maria says Estenor is an angel.<\/p>\n

He grins at the idea. He says he began shaking afterwards, disbelieving he’d been able to do what he\u2019d just done.<\/p>\n

“The shock of doing that …\u201d he told the Sporting News<\/em> magazine. \u201cIt’s not an everyday thing you do.”<\/p>\n

The incident might have gone unnoticed except for a letter that the manager of the caf\u00e9 wrote to USF Coach Skip Holtz.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to let you know that Danous is a real hero,” read the letter. “I know in my heart that without Danous there, the driver may not have survived. His quick thinking, willingness to help and strength saved that man’s life.”<\/p>\n

“What a phenomenal story,\u201d Holtz told the Times<\/em>. \u201cNot all of us can lift a car. And Danous just walked away? I can totally see that. Just humble, quiet, keeps to himself.”<\/p>\n

Holtz read the letter to the team, embarrassing the sophomore.<\/p>\n

“Ever since Coach Holtz read the letter, they all say, ‘Oh, where’s your cape?’ ” says Estenor. “It’s not bad. They’re just making fun.”<\/p>\n

“I always feel good when I do a good deed, to help somebody any kind of way. Small or big, as long as I can make a difference, I feel good about it.”<\/p>\n

“I still remember him,\u201d\u00a0marvels dishwasher Baker. \u201cI don’t think we would have gotten (the car) up if it wasn’t for him. It’s like it was meant to happen. Every time I see him, I’m like, ‘How did you pick up a car?'”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maria knows.<\/p>\n

\u00a0She asked for\u00a0a milagro for her husband.<\/p>\n

And God sent Danous Estenor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod, bring an angel to my side,\u201d prayed the desperate, screaming wife as she struggled to lift a car off of her husband\u2019s chest. \u201cHelp me!\u201d In the parking lot of the Bull\u2019s Den Cafe near the University of South Florida, tow truck driver Pedro Arzola, 34, was pinned under the right front tire of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,211,71],"tags":[383,430,381],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational","category-miracle","category-news","tag-inspirational","tag-miracle","tag-news"],"yoast_head":"\nStudent lifts 3,500-lb. 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