I haven’t…but I’d really love to hear of any stories of heros and heroines.
In any situation, have you ever saved anyone’s life in any way? Directly or indirectly?
Yes, repeatedly(ho hum), but since I am an RN and used to work ICU, this is not as amazing as it sounds…outside of work–no, never.
Indirectly, I suppose I saved my mother’s life, in that she stopped drinking due to my actions, and if she hadn’t she’d probably be dead by now. She certainly believes I did, anyway 
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Don’t know if I actually saved her life (the doctor would probably have noticed the problem), but once I did alert a woman about a serious problem.
I had a summer job in a doctor’s office, doing EKGs and drawing blood*. One patient came in and I ran the usual tests, including a hemoglobin test. The number was about four; normal is 12-18.
I interrupted the doctor and showed him the results. He did his own test and got a five – still seriously anemic. He immediately admitted the woman to the hospital; turned out she was bleeding internally. They were able to find the problem and save her.
*Part of my parents’ idea of making me want to be a doctor. This was back in the early 70s; I’d be surprised if a doctor dared to allow it nowadays.
Not me, but I have two stories:
One coworker saved my bosses’ boss with the Heimlich, when she was choking.
And another coworker saved her stepfather from choking on a Swedish meatball, also with the Heimlich. Thankfully we didn’t need the meatball for anything, cause soon as it popped out and hit the ground the dog ate it.
Insert pukey smiley here.
I was walking down the street one morning during rush hour, and suddenly a guy walking on the other side of the street started lurching, went into the street, and fell down, having a seizure of some kind. I immediately ran to the guy, and started directing traffic around him. 13 cars went by an SUV stopped in front of me, put on his emergency lights, the driver got out and said “You could have been killed standing here like that.” I hadn’t even thought of that.
Was in West Hollywood, about to cross the street at Santa Monica Blvd and Sweetzer and a jogger with headset came next to me and saw the WALK sign and started to run. I put my had out and basically slammed him in his gut. He was about to punch me out for slamming him when the car - which I saw had no intention of stopping at the red light - went tearing through the intersection at about 45 MPH. The guy almost had a heart attack, looked at the ground where his body would have been splattered, and thanked me. He was one lucky dude that I was next to him, and also that I still look both ways even if the sign does say WALK. (learned that while living in NYC)
Also, my SO was given only a few months to live by two doctors. I insisted we go to a third doctor. That one knew what the hell he was talking about and he also had read up on new technology. Thanks to my pigheadedness in going for a third opinion, 3 years later my SO is still with me, and now in perfect health.
One time there was this little kid who was taking a swimming test, and he had to swim all the way across the deep end of the pool. I saw in his eyes and the way he was swimming that he wasn’t going to make it, and I reached in and grabbed his hand and pulled him out.
I guess this would have been more heroic if I weren’t his swim instructor and the lifeguard on duty…
I was a lifeguard at a beach in a low-income area and had the opportunity to save quite a few lives. The kids in the neighbourhood couldn’t afford swimming lessons so I’d be in the water several times a week to pull them out.
Also worked with the Coast Guard and had a couple of great rescues. The most rewarding were always the ones that ended with, “Had you not shown up when you did things would have gotten really bad really fast.”
I was a lifeguard at a beach in a low-income area and had the opportunity to save quite a few lives. The kids in the neighbourhood couldn’t afford swimming lessons so I’d be in the water several times a week to pull them out.
Also worked with the Coast Guard and had a couple of great rescues. The most rewarding were always the ones that ended with, “Had you not shown up when you did things would have gotten really bad really fast.”
Sorta. And both stories I’ve told before and are rowing related. (man, I’m so predictable)
About three or four years ago, we were rowing at night on the darkest part o the river. I was in the bow which in a rowing scull, meant I was in the front of the boat, facing backwards. (like this, that’s actually me in the bow at Sand Diego) Anyway, I hear shouting off, turn around and see a big twin hulled party boat about 15 feet from the bow and we’re about to go under. I did the only thing I could twisted to take the impact with my shoulder. I stopped our boat but broke my foot in the process. (and, as it turns out, actually took the impact with my ass which was really bruised) Anyway, everyone in the boat says I saved their lives but I think I was really saving my own butt.
The other thing happened in October 2004 when I was out coaching some juniors. I saw a capsized single boat and went to see if the guy needed help. He was completely non-responsive (but awake) and about to go under. so I grabbed his head and held him up. My friend in another boat came by and helped me. He was a big guy so we couldnt’ get him into our launches (power boats) but had to wait for water rescue come help us. Turns out he was diabetic. There were other people around, I think someone else would have helped him, but we were just the first ones there…
Hehe. Just after my soon-to-be-ex had her kids, her mom came to visit and help us out. They were making something with cheese and my wife came in, clutching her throat. I calmly got up, gave her the Heimlich and sent the cheese-a-flying across the living room. Where the dog ate it.
Many years ago, between my freshman and sophomore years of college. I was out sailing with my father and a friend on Lake Erie. in a 16-foot “Hobie Cat”. High waves, strong wind, small boat – good fun. We were a couple dozen yards out, trying to get past the breakers, when my father keeled over gasping for air. I asked him if he was okay, he croaked out “no” and I yelled to my friend to get us headed back into shore. The boat was an open catamaran, so I stayed hunched over my dad to keep him from sliding off.
We were making no headway getting turned about in the wind and waves, and I was getting panicky, when the boat capsized (good thing, too; I was nearly paralyzed with indecision and the boat going over galvanized me). We all went in the waist deep water. I scooped up my father, who by this point was non-responsive, and carried him in to shore. A crowd had formed by now, and fortunately one of the folks there was an RN. I put my father down on the beach and she started CPR.
I stood there with the crowd as she breathed into him, and then she looked up and yelled “I need a man’s lungs!” I’d never done CPR before, but I had watched “Emergency” as a kid and I was on auto-pilot by now anyway, so I dropped to my knees and made like Roy Desoto. After a “while”, he started sputtering and gasping. We rolled him to his side and the nurse told me to whack him to help him get the water out of his lungs. I gave him a weak little thwack, she pushed me aside saying, “no, hit him!” and really pounded him. He spit up a bunch of water, and minutes later was sitting up asking what had happened.
That was over twenty years, a couple of by-passes (him, not me) ago, and he’s still doing pretty good.
I’ll come back later and tell about the time I saved a little kid who was floating upside down in a pool. I don’t think he would have died had I not been there, but I did lose my sunglasses which I think makes me kind of heroic.
Yes, me the adventurous baby boy. My brother, who was about 5 at the time, was playing with me and he managed to lock himself in the dryer. Fortunately, I went crawling to my mom and insisted she went with me to watch my brother’s funny antics. Yes, I escorted her to where all the fun was and she took him out.
That’s what my mom tells me. I don’t know.
I worked in the World Trade Center and was there on 9/11. After I left the building, I saw a coworker of mine standing not far away, staring up at the buildings, paralyzed with fear. I got her to walk away with me. This was just before the second plane hit Tower 2, at which point everyone started running and I lost her in the melee. She later told me that she believed I saved her life, but of course there’s no way to know.
I suppose this would qualify.
The bitch finally sold the horse, I’m told, after it freaked out on a trail ride and put her in the hospital.
I have talked a few people down from suicide. I don’t know if they would have gone through with it, but I prefer not to have found out.
Three times. The first time, I was in college at a frat party. I was visiting two friends and was walking upstairs . I reached the landing when I noticed one of the new brothers drunk, peeing off the second floor roof, and weaving with increasing momentum back and forth. I jumped out onto the roof, grabbed him by the collar of his jacket (just as he was going over, BTW) and pulled him to the window and back inside the house. I took him to my friends’ room and told them to watch him…he was their brother and he was a danger to himself. I ended up getting banned from visiting the fraternity house for daring to ‘lay my hands’ (like telekinisis ever works) on a brother. :rolleyes
Second, I was at a playground with my son and I noticed that a toddler was playing on the big-kid equipment with no parent near. He stopped holding on with his hands and suddenly started to lose his balance backwards (15 foot drop to blacktop). I ran and caught him as he fell, putting him down immediately and waiting for a parent to come thank/yell at me. A grandmther approached from the otherside and I was about to really give her a speach…when I saw she was walking with those polio-canes (I don’t know what they are called). I think I said " he needs to be more careful" and went to see what my own son was up to. It had a neat bonus though. My son saw what I did and played a game called ‘saving people’ for the rest of the day.
Third, I was up in the ropes of the rope climb at Sesame Place. A young boy near where my son and I were climbingme and my son got his wrist caught in a bend of the ropes that then closed, cutting him (It was a Freak thing…had to see it). He started to bleed a lot. I grabbed his arm and did my best to apply direct pressure as well as get him up to the next stairwell platform. He won’t climb. My son is freaking. And the pear-shapped employee in charge of watching them is too out of shape to get in the nets (…who the hell hired someone who can’t go on ropes to watch a rope climb…?). So I tell my son not to move (and he didn’t). Told the bleeding boy to look only in my eyes and just climb up with me. And I did a backward crab climb with him up the ropes (I think I pulled/carried him half way) and I got him to the platform. Pear-shaped guard then took him to the aid station area. And I got my son. He was a liittle freaked about all the blood on the ropes, but he got over it. And the rest of the day was a pretty good day to be in a water-park.
I was the only person standing near a private (family) swimming pool when a boy of about 5 ran out of the changing rooms (without waiting for his mother, or more importantly his armbands) and jumped straight into the pool. Although it was the shallow end, he was so small he was well out of his depth and I have a very clear memory of seeing his very blonde hair floating just below the surface of the water and his arms moving very slowly, in the second before I jumped in and picked him up.
If I hadn’t been there he would have drowned - his mother didn’t come out of the changing rooms to check on him until several minutes later, and she seemed a little startled that I’d jumped into the water fully clothed - I don’t think she had the slightest idea that I’d just saved her son’s life and at the time I was too flustered and busy being polite to make a big deal of it. He was fine, hardly even spluttering and not seeming very upset by the experience, I think he was more bothered by the strange lady picking him up.
At lifesaving they always teach you almost never to go in after drowning people unless you can be very sure you’re safe (“don’t make one tragedy into two”). I wasn’t in any danger - the water was only up to my waist and the boy was too tiny to pull me under, but it made me wonder - I didn’t stop to think at all, I just jumped in, and in another situation that could have got me killed. I hope if I was in danger I would realise it and act sensibly, but I guess I’ll never know until it happens.
I was a parent volunteer at a week long camp for my sons 5th grade class.
We were with a group of 8 kids with 3 parents. The kids were fishing off a lake pier when a girl fell in the water. We all waited to see her come to the surface so we could pull her in but she didn’t. Everyone stood for what seemed like a long time and the next thing I know I am jumping in the water. The water was murky and I think she was swimming down. I had jumped in where she fell and after a sec caught her by the shirt. I pulled her up and got her to the side of the dock after she puked she was fine.
My wife did not know whether to be proud or mad because she knows the one way I would not want to die is by drowning, I am terrified of it even if I am a good swimmer. But I seemed to forget about it at the time.