Once a Victim, Now a Lifeline as a Communications Operator

Ten years ago, a single 9-1-1 call changed the course of Kadri Okurlu’s life.
After being stabbed in the leg and suffering a severed femoral artery, Kadri was alone in a car, critically injured and bleeding to death.
“It was the worst day of my life,” Kadri recalls. “When it happened, I called 9-1-1. The only thing I remember saying was, ‘I’m stabbed in my leg, send me help.’ After that, I was in and out of consciousness. The last thing I remember was holding the hand of a medic who reassured me I wasn’t going to die.”
That paramedic was Candice Sherrett — now a Toronto Police Service 9-1-1 Communications Operator.
Candice was among the first responders who rushed to the scene that night.
“He was bleeding heavily,” she remembers. “I was scared we might lose him, and he was terrified. I knew we had to act fast.”
When a tourniquet failed to stop the bleeding, Candice applied direct pressure to Kadri’s artery in the back of the ambulance as her partner drove them to hospital. Doctors later confirmed that her actions saved his life.
“I called her my angel then, and I still do,” says Kadri.
A week later, Candice was able to visit him in hospital—a rare opportunity for a paramedic. The two spoke briefly before their lives went in separate directions.
Kadri went on to serve in the military but a decade later, fate brought them together again.
Inspired by his own emergency call, Kadri decided to give back. He joined the Toronto Police Service Communications Centre, becoming one of the people who takes 9-1-1 calls and dispatches officers to emergencies.
“Ten years ago, I dialed 9-1-1 and my life was saved,” Kadri explains. “Now it’s my turn to give back—to be the voice on the line helping someone else in their moment of crisis.”
In his first week of training, Kadri retold his story and learned that Candice would be a colleague. Friends put them on the phone together right away.
“After 10 years I wondered what happened to Candice and my friends put her on the phone. There she was, the same voice I was hearing that night in the ambulance,” said Kadri.
Candice describes the reunion as unforgettable.
“For me, it was like Christmas morning,” Candice says. “As a paramedic, you rarely know what happens to your patients after you leave them at the hospital. To hear Kadri on the phone that day, it was pure joy. It was full circle.”
Now, both Kadri and Candice take calls from those in crisis.
“Thank you for being there for me and giving me the fighting chance,” Kadri told her. “Now we get to work side by side.”
For Candice, the gratitude is mutual.
“You being here and giving back is all the thanks I’ll ever need," said Candace.