CNN Anchor Rushes To Aid Of Elderly Man Injured In Bike Accident

Just hours before Kaitlan Collins, a CNN anchor for the network’s primetime show The Source, was set to be the latest guest speaker for the Dreamland’s series “Dreamland Conversations,” she found herself strolling down Broad Street at 4 p.m. after an afternoon with her friends to return to her hotel room and prepare for the event.

But as she walked down the street, she saw an elderly man fall off his bike and immediately went over to assist him only to find out the injuries were worse than she thought.

“I was walking down the street by myself, and I saw him fall and you know, people on Nantucket fall off bikes all the time but then I got closer, and I realized he had seriously injured his leg,” Collins said. “I don't know if he hit an artery or what, but I mean, it was bleeding profusely.”

Collins said luckily, the man had a beach towel in his possession, and she quickly grabbed it and began applying pressure to the man’s leg.

"I wrapped it around his leg to hold it firmly because obviously holding and having pressure on it is everything especially for someone who is older,” she said. “You don't know if they have something going on or are on blood thinners or anything. It was crazy.”

Collins said CNN has a hostile environment training they put their employees through in the event they are providing coverage in a war zone or dangerous area, and that the training came in handy on Saturday as people began to crowd the man and offer assistance.

"Something that is lucky is that CNN does this hostile environment training where if you're going to go out to a war zone or something like that, they make you do this training just so you yourself are prepared," she said. "First aid is a huge part of it, and I personally just did this major refresher on first aid about a year and a half ago. It actually really came in handy (on Saturday) because people were trying to move him and I was like 'No, no. He cannot stand up.’ It was quite the ordeal."

Collins said the man was staying on island with his daughter and that she called his daughter on his phone as soon as paramedics arrived to make her aware of what happened.

“She was riding her bike with him, but I think she just kept going and didn't realize that he had fallen off and injured himself,” Collins said. “It was just the two of them here and she came over. I think they left in good condition. What's amazing about Nantucket is that so many people stopped to help, to call 911, or to go inside 21 Broad and get clean paper towels or whatnot. It was actually really, really nice how many people stopped to help.”

Given the gruesomeness of the injury, Collins was attempting to distract the man until paramedics arrived and formed a good connection with him.

“I asked him his name and where he was from and he said Mississippi and I was like ‘Oh great I’m from Alabama’ and so we were talking and when the paramedics arrived his daughter hadn’t arrived yet, so they looked at me and asked if I was related to him,” she said. “And before I could even answer he goes ‘This is my cousin from Alabama’ and they totally believed it. It was so funny, and I loved how he still had the presence of mind to be funny while we’re sitting in the middle of this.”