Raleigh, N.C. — A Johnston County man saved a woman's life and made others better. Now the hero needs help, and friends and even strangers are repaying his favors.

Ted Smith was hurt in a freak accident a month ago while helping a neighbor remove trees. Doctors said he probably won't walk again.

Ted will, however, come home again. Dozens of neighbors, friends and friends of friends are making the home he shares with his wife, Kim, wheelchair-accessible.

“It's amazing,” Kim Smith said to WRAL. “Friends come together when something of this magnitude happens, I guess.”

Ted Smith's friends are hustling to get the house ready. He hopes to be home in about two weeks.

In the meantime, he's had plenty of visitors at the hospital, including a woman whose life he saved three years ago. One of her relatives is now one of Ted's nurses at WakeMed.

“He was just like an angel to me,” said Beverly Lockhart.

In January of 2004, Lockhart's car crashed into Crabtree Creek. Ted Smith stopped and pulled her from the icy water flooding her car.

“You got to do it” he said at the time of the crash. “I just hope somebody would do it for me.”

Now, people are coming to the rescue of the rescuer.

“He would do it for me,” said neighbor Wayne Benson. “Ted's a great guy. He helps everybody in the neighborhood.”

Now it’s their chance to repay the favors.

“We can't come up with words to thank everyone,” Kim Smith said. “But they are amazing.”