AGAWAM (WWLP) – An Agawam teenager is being recognized as a Red Cross Hometown Hero for helping rescue her boyfriend who fell 60 feet into a Southwick Quarry.
“She remained calm and composed unlike you would ever expect anyone her age to do,” said Jessica Bishop, a Southwick Fire Department EMT.
Just recently with boyfriend Antonio Bruno by her side, 17-year-old Sydney Bryden talked about her fierce determination to keep her desperately injured boyfriend alive.
“He was just yelling and screaming and I took my shirt off and I wrapped it around his head, his face was bleeding a lot,” said Bryden.
Bruno’s face still carries the scars from his injuries from that terrible fall.
“It puts like love and appreciation, it puts everything on a whole new level. There are no words describing how it makes me feel,” said Bruno.
Bryden’s saving of Bruno’s life on that summer day made a deep impression on others.
“You don’t realize what your kids can do but she just did it. I was amazed, really very proud,” said Lori Bryden, Sydney’s mother.
“She was covered in blood, just shaking… I held her until I had to leave in the ambulance. All she kept saying was, ‘I did my best, I put my shirt on him,’” said Laura Bruno, Antonio’s mother.
Bryden and Bruno will graduate together as part of the Agawam high school class of 2016 this spring, a joyous event that appeared in jeopardy at the bottom of quarry.
“Without her, I think Antonio might have had a different outcome,” said Bishop.
“Yes, that whole walk down, it takes fifteen minutes to get to the bottom, I was like, convinced he was dead,” said Bryden.
“She acted above and beyond what a 17-year-old should ever have had to act, and she did amazing,” said Bishop.
