Amy Adams says canceled medical drama helped her save stabbing victim in Santa Monica

Amy Adams said she once helped save a stabbing victim’s life after using first-aid knowledge she picked up while filming a short-lived medical drama. She described the incident on the Smartless podcast, saying she and her family were among the first people at the scene when they were leaving their favorite restaurant in Santa Monica.

Adams recalled chaos breaking out as people screamed, one man walked away, and others shouted, “He is dying!” Her husband, Darren Le Gallo, stayed with their daughter while Adams and her father rushed in to help. After seeing that the man had been stabbed in the neck, she said she felt intensely focused and used beach towels to apply pressure and slow the bleeding.

She also told the victim, “The more you struggle, the faster you will bleed. Just lie down.” Adams said she learned that advice while playing licensed nurse Alice Doherty in CBS’s Dr. Vegas, which ran for only five episodes in 2004. The series starred Rob Lowe as Dr. Billy Grant and also featured Sarah Lancaster, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Joe Pantoliano, Tom Sizemore and Adam Clark.

Adams added that a year after the stabbing, she unexpectedly ran into the victim at a restaurant. He approached her and said he had heard she and her father had been at the scene of a stabbing, and she realized it was the same man. “Oh my God, it’s you,” she remembered telling him.