Imagine heading to class like it’s just another normal day, but instead of making it on time, you end up flying in a helicopter and saving someone’s life. That’s what happened to Matt W., a paramedic student who was already working with the fire department, when his morning commute took a sharp left-hand turn into the absurd.

Matt was juggling university and a gig as a paramedic, so he was on his way to class when he hit a traffic jam. Most people would probably groan about being late. Not Matt. He noticed something familiar about the fire trucks ahead. They were from his squad. In true paramedic fashion, he parked the car and headed straight for the action.

“I was going to class and I noticed a traffic jam with all the fire trucks ahead of me from the squadron I was on. So I park the car, get out, go to the ambulance, and I asked if they needed anything. They said, ‘Yes, get in,’” Matt said to Thrillist.

For Matt, this was just the beginning. He jumped into action, not realizing that the rest of his day was about to go off the rails. Turns out, a garbage man had been working the back of the truck when a driver, blinded by the sun, rear-ended the rig. The man’s leg? Yeah, it didn’t fare too well.

“The man’s leg ended up getting smashed between the car and the truck, and the leg was like complete hamburger,” Matt said, describing the scene. Matt and the team quickly slapped a tourniquet on it and called for a helicopter to transport the victim.

This is where the story could’ve ended—life saved, case closed. But no, things got even crazier. When the helicopter arrived, one of the firefighters was either too sick or, as Matt puts it, “too big,” to fly with the patient. So what do they do? Naturally, they sent Matt up in the chopper instead of his beefy coworker.

“For whatever reason, when the helicopter lands, one of the firefighters couldn’t fly (he was too sick or too big, I couldn’t remember), so the chief sent me up in the helicopter,” Matt said. He flew the injured man to the hospital, dropped him off, then caught a ride back in the helicopter to his car. Yeah, that’s right, he got plopped back down in front of his ride, like James Bond. But the wild day wasn’t over yet. With the leg-saving helicopter detour behind him, Matt raced straight to class.

But of course, there’s always a twist. After all that action, you’d think he’d at least get a pat on the back for showing up. Nope. When he finally made it to class, Matt was hit with an unexcused tardy. “I get in my car and go to class, and I got an unexcused tardy for being late,” Matt laughs.

Sometimes, saving a life isn’t enough to get you off the hook for missing a class. For Matt, it was just another day balancing class, saving lives, and helicopter rides. But hey, at least he’s got one heck of a story to tell. You can keep your action heroes and superheroes: real heroes walk among us and many of them are paramedics like Matt.