Nurse finally gets to thank the firefighter who saved her life 37 years ago

Deirdre Taylor can't really recall the day Eugene Pugliese rescued her from a burning apartment, but he remembers everything.

In December 1983, Pugliese, then a firefighter in Manhattan, was inspecting water pipes when a man ran up to him and said there was a fire in a nearby building. He raced inside, rescuing a woman from her burning apartment. She told Pugliese her daughter was still inside, and he found 4-year-old Deirdre, unconscious. He revived the girl by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and although he "didn't see her ever again after that, I always wondered about her," Pugliese told CNN.

Today, Taylor is a 40-year-old emergency room nurse living in Virginia. She also wondered what happened to Pugliese, and tried to track him down online, to no avail. "I had a second chance at life, thanks to him," she said. During the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Taylor went to New York City to help treat patients, and asked a firefighter she met if he knew Eugene Pugliese. He didn't, but a friend did, and that man shared Pugliese's phone number with Taylor.

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Pugliese, 75, told CNN he was "on cloud nine" when Taylor called. He was thrilled to hear from her, and to learn that she "turned out to be a remarkable woman with a magnificent life." They quickly realized they had a lot in common, including being major Yankees fans, and when it's safe to meet in person, they plan on going to a game together. Catherine Garcia