Subway Survivor and Hero Reunite in Brooklyn

MYFOXNY.COM -- Rosie Rittenbery, 18, is a student from Texas. Lance McGraw is a 23-year old from Michigan. Although they live a block away from each other in Brooklyn, they were perfect strangers until last week when in a twist of fate their lives intersected on some subway tracks.

Rosie and Lance's chance encounter was no ordinary meeting. Both were standing on a subway platform in Brooklyn Thursday morning. Their Manhattan-bound N train was approaching.

Then, Rosie passed out.

"I looked at my friend and she said, 'Rosie you look really white,' and that's the last thing I remember," Rosie said. "I had no memory of that, then I just somersaulted over and landed on my back on the tracks."

Lance, a few feet away on the platform, saw the train coming and realized Rosie wasn't moving.

"A few seconds passed and no one else moved and I knew then, I had to go," Lance said. "I just thought, I have to do this before the train comes. I didn't realize how close the train was and it didn't occur to me that I had put myself in so much danger."

But he had. The train was bearing down on them and Rosie was unconscious.

"It's really, really scary," Rosie said. "Just the thought of it is terrifying. I didn't actually see it myself, I think if I had actually seen my body lying there on the tracks it would be a much scarier feeling for me."

Lance said a lot of people on the platform gasped.

"I think the panic paralyzed everybody," Lance said. "When I jumped down and went to pick her up, I've never seen somebody, who was unconscious and wasn't going to wake up when you lift them and that was actually the most frightening moment."

Yet, somehow Lance picked up Rosie's limp body off the tracks and got her to the platform. EMTs arrived soon after.

"He was fantastic, he saved her life," said Perry Kennedy, a medic from Maimonides Medical Center. "Had he not acted or we were delayed, she could have had life threatening injuries and death."

Rosie was taken to the hospital and recovered quickly. But before she could even thank her anonymous rescuer, he got on his train and went to work.

To Rosie, lance will forever be the hero who saved her life.