Screenshots via @doctor.ribeye/Instagram
Audio By Carbonatix
Not all heroes wear capes.
Miguel Ribe, a Jackson Memorial Hospital ER resident and medical influencer known to his 20,000-plus Instagram followers as @doctor.ribeye, is typically photographed in his teal scrubs and stethoscope. But when his fiancée, Stephanie Bavaresco – an Instagram influencer herself, with more than 27,000 followers – noticed a bleeding man at the I-95 entrance ramp as they were driving home from the Wharf Miami last weekend, Ribe, clad in ripped jeans and a bold-print shirt and sporting Nike Blazers, sprang to action.
According to Ribe’s and Bavaresco’s retelling of the incident on Instagram, Bavaresco called 911 as Ribe rushed to the man’s rescue and helped stabilize his breathing until paramedics arrived
“I don’t know what his outcome will be, but I truly hope we were able to get to him in time,” Ribe wrote in an Instagram post about the incident on Monday evening.
The notion of an influencer doctor typically conjures images of someone awkwardly dancing in scrubs or a lab coat on TikTok, not heroically saving a person’s life on the side of the highway. But Ribe is part of a new generation of hot young doctors who’ve built followings on social media sites like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
His most recent Instagram post about the incident – photos and a video showing him kneeling over the victim with a line of cars and a sliver of the Miami skyline visible in the background – was a slight departure from his usual content, which includes thirst-trap selfies showing off his slicked-back hair and biceps bulging out of scrubs or Hawaiian shirts or connected to his manscaped, tattooed pecs.
But his followers didn’t seem to mind: As of noon on Tuesday, the post had garnered more than 4,500 likes. Another shot of the incident, which shows a group of Miami paramedics surrounding Ribe as he attended to the man on the ground, was shared by the popular Only In Dade (@onlyindade) Instagram account.
The vast majority of the feedback was positive, though commenters accused Ribe of clout-chasing.
“Babe don’t forget to take a picture for Instagram!” one person facetiously wrote.
“Miami does anything for the CLOUT” commented another.
“So glad @doctor.ribeye was able to get some sick content for his instagram,” chastised another.
On Monday evening, Bavaresco turned her camera to selfie mode and spoke to her followers about the incident. She explained that the man, who appeared to have fallen out of a “trolley” as it was pulling onto I-95, was unresponsive and bleeding from the head when they found him. Ribe successfully revived him.
“It was scary, but it was incredible to see Miguel in action,” Bavaresco told her followers. “I hear stories that he tells me all the time, but seeing it was a whole other experience, and I’m so proud of him, honestly.”
After spending several minutes recapping the events hailing her fiancé as a hero, Bavaresco pivoted to a pitch for the “online business” company she works for.
“If you are interested in learning more of what I do and how you can also make an extra income online and monetize social media and have more time freedom, earn these incentives, let’s talk,” she said. “You don’t have to have experience or you don’t have to have a big following, it’s all about being open-minded and wanting more…. There’s no commitment; I’ll give you some information and we can go from there.”
#BecauseMiami, of course.
