A U.S. Postal Service worker is being credited with saving the life of a 6-year-old girl who was in distress after her mother passed out from a drug overdose.

Andrew Russell said he was pulled over in his truck when he heard a sound of a car revving, then the voice of a child.

“What really caught my attention was hearing a child’s voice, there was a child in the backseat that was yelling,” Russell told ABC Denver 7.

Russell said he immediately ran over to the parked car where he heard the child’s cries coming from.

When he got close to the car he found a girl inside with her mother slumped over.

He called 911 and pulled the girl, who was very distressed, out of the car.

“Her mommy wasn’t moving. So, of course, the child was obviously very freaked out,” Russell told KDVR. “I can’t really imagine how traumatic something like that must have been for a small child. I have a little girl of my own so it definitely hit a chord that way.”

Russell said he was glad to have been at the right place and at the right time to help the girl.

“She said thank you a couple times and yeah, it meant the world to me that she was just OK,” Russell said.

Wheat Ridge Police say that the girl’s mother overdosed on fentanyl.

She ended up waking up by the time officers arrived.

“It was a fentanyl pill,’ the woman reportedly told officers.

The girl then told officers what happened.

“I wake up my mom and she didn’t wake up. She was snoring. I screamed loud and said ‘help.’ Then the mailman came over here to me,” she said.

The girl’s mother was arrested and is facing several criminal charges including child abuse and possession of a controlled substance.

“I’m very grateful that he was there to help the child in the situation so that she had someone there that she could trust,” Wheat Ridge Police Officers Kylee Fischer said.

Russell, who had only been a postal worker for seven weeks, said he was glad that his training helped him prepare for this kind of situation.

“I was just in right place, at the right time. Just doing my job. They do go over a lot of things in terms of always be aware of your surroundings, which is really important because all day we are walking around people’s neighborhoods and you do see and hear a lot of things,” he said.

Many are hailing Russell as a hero for being there for the girl.

“What a good dude! He deserves praise for sure. Helping kids is a really legit thing to do, especially right now the way things are. Great guy!” a YouTube commenter wrote.

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FOX31 Denver

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By D.G. Sciortino

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D.G. is a contributing writer in Shareably. She's based in Connecticut and can be reached at [email protected].