Good Samaritan saves man struck by stray bullet with teddy bear

CHICAGO -- An emergency room nurse was in the right place at the right time over the weekend, rushing to save the life of a father who was shot in the head in Humboldt Park, Chicago.

Ivan Escobar used the first thing he could find to put pressure on the gunshot wound: a teddy bear.

The shooting happened in the 3800-block of West Grand Avenue. Escobar said he had to get out of the car after hearing gunfire and then a woman screaming.

"I think it was hearing the wife screaming and seeing her with a daughter and no one going up to the car and helping," he said.

The Saturday night shooting wounded a 44-year-old man who was driving with his wife and 3-year-old daughter when police said he was hit in the face by a stray bullet.

"I see the guy is bleeding, so I grab the teddy bear that was there and I placed it on his forehead to help stop the bleeding," Escobar said.

Escobar stayed with the victim until help arrived. The man was conscious and talking despite being shot between the eyes.

Escobar works as an emergency room nurse at Saint Anthony Hospital in Lawndale and said he was merely doing what his colleagues do every day.

"I don't consider myself a hero," he said. "I just felt like a person, like I think we should all just help each other."

Remarkably, the man who was shot is expected to survive. Escobar called that an "act of God." He said he hopes to meet the man one day.