A Buffalo woman is currently making headlines after rescuing a stranger who was stranded outside during the deadly snowstorm that has left at least 31 people dead.
In a lengthy Facebook post and video on December 25, Sha’Kyra Aughtry revealed that she found a man with special needs crying out for help on the street on Christmas Eve. Aughtry says she and her boyfriend decided to take the man — who has now been identified as Joe White — into her home, bathing, feeding, and tending to his injuries.
Buffalo woman saves man from freezing to death in blizzard. She told her boyfriend there was a guy outside. He reluctantly went outside and had a hard time bringing him in. He was nearly frozen. They called a family member who is a nurse, to ask how to treat frostbite. #kindness pic.twitter.com/ad1B96StaX
— IreneBritUSA (@RUOKPage) December 29, 2022
“I currently have a 64-year-old white man in my house,” Aughtry said in the video, adding that the man “was being blown up and down the street — it was out of control.” Aughtry explained that White suffered injuries from the extreme cold, including having “hands with ice balls” on them, and showed his hands in the video. She also shared that White had a tote bag frozen to his hands and that she had to blow dry the ice off of them.
She continued to claim that she called on multiple emergency services for help but couldn’t get a response from anyone. “They keep telling me I was on a list. But I don’t want to be on no list,” Aughtry said. “This man is not about to die over here,” she added.
It took two days before White could be transported from Aughtry’s home to ECMC Hospital in Buffalo, where he is currently being treated, per a GoFundMe page White’s coworker Chris Dearing set up to help White cover his medical bills.
Dearing wrote on the page that White, who is mentally disabled, “did not understand the true severity of the storm.” As of December 28, the GoFundMe had raised more than $66,000, more than tripling its goal of raising $20,000.
White is in stable condition and “in good spirits,” but it’s unclear if he will have lasting damage to his hands, per the GoFundMe page.
Dearing has also set up a GoFundMe page for Aughtry, who “put her Christmas plans aside and tended to his wounds the best she could.” Aughtry is a mother of three children, according to her Instagram profile. “Without her generous spirit and fierce determination to get Joe help, my friend would be dead,” Dearing wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“Sha’Kyra did all of this without any thought of reward, but she deserves one, and so does her family. She’s a hard-working young mother, and I want to show her at least a fraction of the support she gave my friend Joe,” he continued.