Bystander’s Quick Response Saves Little Girl After Car Crashes Into Her Home

Shortly before 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 10th, the Salem Police department responded to multiple reports that an SUV had crashed into a nearby residence.

At the scene, landscaper Scott Demers had been working on an irrigation system a few yards away when he heard a loud boom. Moments later, he was called to action.

“The father came out of the house screaming that ‘he just killed my little girl,” recalled Demers, who immediately ran to the man’s aid.

Despite having no medical training, he realized Guiliana Tutrone’s throat was bleeding profusely and removed his shirt to apply it to the wound.

One street over, Dr. Tim Chu was running errands when he received a frantic call from a neighbor asking him to come to the crash. Arriving at the site, he assessed the damage to Guiliana’s neck and advised Demers to continue applying pressure.

Dr. Chu told the Eagle Tribune, “He saved her life… She had her jugular lacerated. Without quick action, that's a fatal injury.” When paramedics arrived on the scene, the off-duty ER doctor immediately advised that she needed to be airlifted to a Boston hospital, staying with the family until the helicopter arrived.

Joseph Tutrone, Giuliana’s father, has praised both men’s quick responses. “Really, they’re the ones who saved her life because I was in a complete panic, I didn’t know what to do.”

The driver, identified by police as 37-year-old Scott Dowd, hit a granite mailbox before crashing into the Tutrones’s home. The impact, which was caught by the family’s home surveillance system, caused part of the mailbox to catapult from the hood of the car into the room where Giuliana and her brother were playing, causing her severe injuries.

Dowd, an orthopedic surgeon at nearby Lawrence General Hospital, has since been arrested on multiple charges and will be arraigned in Rockingham Superior Court. Police believe that alcohol and speed were factors in the crash.

While Giuliana suffered a broken jaw and several facial lacerations, she has been released from the hospital and is on the road to recovery, thanks in large part to the actions of Scott Demer and Dr. Tim Chu. A GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for Tutrone’s hospital costs.