Sha’Kyra Aughtry Saves Man with Severe Frostbite after Getting out of the Buffalo Snowstorm

North Park Theatre in Buffalo expressed gratitude on their marquee for Sha’Kyra and her boyfriend Trent for saving their longest-working employee Joe White. Provided photo | North Park Theatre

Sha’Kyra Aughtry saves a 64-year-old man from a deadly snowstorm on Christmas Eve

Sha’Kyra Aughtry is an angel of the city of Buffalo

On Christmas Eve, Sha’Kyra Aughtry discovered a man outside her residence after she heard his screams for help.

“The winds — just sweeping him away,” she said. “I saw his body, and then I didn’t see his body. And I just could tell he was stumbling, he was falling.”

And despite any trepidation she may have had about inviting the stranger in, she knew she had to act fast as soon as she saw the state of the man.

“I told my boyfriend, I’m like, ‘Hey, there is a guy outside. We gotta bring him in,'” she recalled.

Aughtry’s boyfriend carried the man, 64-year-old Joe White, into the house, and she used a blow dryer to melt the ice off his red and blistered hands and used a “grass cutter” to remove a ring from his finger to prevent loss of circulation, she said.

When the Buffalo woman tried to call emergency responders for help, no one came, she said. And without a background in medical care, Aughtry said she became worried for his safety.

She took to Facebook to share what had happened and plead for help.

“I’m going crazy because I’m scared,” she said on the live stream. “I’m starting to see his body change too much from the time that I had him – his body has changed rapidly every hour.”

As the storm buried Buffalo in thick snow, emergency responders were unable to respond to calls for hours over the weekend – with ambulances and rescue crews even getting stuck in the snow, Erie County officials have said at press conferences.

She discovered that Joey lived in a local group home, and he’d been trying to make his way to work at North Park Theatre when the storm overwhelmed him.

“I’ve called the National Guard. I’ve called 911. I’ve called everybody – they just keep telling me I’m on a list. I don’t want to be on a list,” Aughtry said on her live stream. “I don’t care about anything else. This man is not about to die over here.”

Joey spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Aughtry before she shared a public plea on Facebook.

And thanks to her, he got it.

Former NFL player and Buffalo native Doug Worthington and another man responded to Aughtry’s message and made their way to her home to transport Joey to Erie County Medical Center, where he remains hospitalized.

Sha’Kyra Aughtry saved a stranger from a Buffalo snowstorm

“He said to me in the car, and it really touched me, he said to me, he said, ‘I’m scared,'” Aughtry said, remembering the moment. “I said, ‘I’m scared, too,’ and he said, ‘Am I gonna die?’ I said, ‘We’re not talking about dying.’ … (He) looked at me and said, ‘I love you,’ and I said, ‘I love you, too, Joey.’”

She went on to say that the former stranger “will forever be a part” of her family.

White’s employer, Ray Barker is the program director of the Theater and has known him for more than 30 years. White is the longest-serving employee of the theater, having worked there since 1980.

“The theater is really his whole life,” Barker said.

The theater has since honored Aughtry and her boyfriend Trent with a message on its marquee. The marquee reads, “Thank you Sha’Kyra and Trent,” alongside “Get well soon, Joe.”

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