A distraught dad was on the phone to his horrified wife when he stepped onto train-tracks with their five-year-old daughter in his arms.
Fernando Balbuena said “with God, with God, with God, here comes the train” in Spanish before he jumped in front of an oncoming subway car in New York in front of screaming onlookers.
His wife, Niurka Caravallo, told the New York Post he uttered his last words on the phone to her as she ran out of the couple's Bronx home to Kingsbridge Station in a panic, only to find him dead.
Incredibly, their little girl, Ferni, survived the incident on Monday morning.
She escaped with scratches and bruises after two bystanders managed to pull her way from an oncoming subway train before it struck and killed her 45-year-old dad.
Ferni was reportedly able to crawl along the subway's trackbed to the outstretched arm of a bystander who lowered himself onto the tracks at his own risk to save her.
"Little by little, my love, little by little," one onlooker can be heard saying in a clip of the moment an onlooker rescued the girl.
She's then hoisted up onto the platform, into a crowd of shocked witnesses who rush to console her.
Mrs Caraballo, 41, spoke of her ordeal in Spanish on Tuesday in comments reported by New York media. “They [witnesses] speculate he was fighting with someone on the phone, but the only person he was on the phone with was me,”
Traumatised Mrs Carabello, who is now raising Ferni and her two-year-old brother Fernand alone, said her husband had depression but was receiving treatment.
His actions had left the family in shock, but they were relieved that Ferni survived.
She said: “They are calling her the miracle girl. My daughter was reborn yesterday.”
The two bystanders who rescued her were taken to hospital with injuries not thought to be life-threatening.
* Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you’re feeling, or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org
