Tulsan Saves Nebraska Woman's Life Through Online Card Game

By Emory Bryan, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- A Tulsa woman saved the life of a woman in Nebraska through an online card game.

Neither of them could sleep, so they started playing cards on the Internet, when suddenly one of the players started asking for help.

She's something of an online angel, Nita Renee, who didn't overlook a plea for help. It took a while, but she got help for a 70-year-old woman who would have died without it.

Nita Renee doesn't consider herself a hero, but others do.

It started with a sleepless night.

"I couldn't sleep so I got online and started playing cards," said Nita Renee, an online card player.

Nita was playing Canasta on a popular game site, Pogo.com.  Another player was typing "help" in a chat room and Nita took it seriously. 

She kept asking the other player for details and through garbled typing figured out who and where she was.

With Renee online in Tulsa, help was sent to the home of a 70-year-old woman in Auburn, Nebraska.

"The person from Tulsa believed her and that's where the 911 call originated, so we were able to respond to the call," said Dale Thomas, Auburn, Nebraska EMT.

"She said, ‘hurry, hurry, hurry' and I told her I was on the phone with the police and I called Tulsa, they called Auburn Nebraska, finally got the right address, and I said ‘be calm they're on the way, on the way,'" said Nita Renee.

A chimney fell through the ceiling of the woman's home and crushed her legs.

"It was probably about a six foot section and it fell through the ceiling and it fell right on her in the easy chair," said said Dale Thomas, Auburn, Nebraska EMT "Good work by that lady down in Oklahoma."

With the phone too far to reach, she reached out through the web site, and finally found someone who would listen.

"I don't think I'm a hero. I just did what needed to be done. Hopefully someone would do that for me," said Nita Renee.

The woman in Nebraska had surgery over the weekend. The EMT who responded said with her blood loss, there was no way she would have made it until morning when her family would have checked on her.

Nita hopes one day she can meet the Auburn woman.