Aside from the occassional grab and pull a friend from walking in front of a car, or screaming and flailing wildly to get them to mystically pull their car out of the way of an oncoming asshole, I’ve never done anything like rescue someone from drowning or given CPR to a child. So, here’s your chance to show everyone the what kind of hero you really are. So, anyone ever save someone’s life?
I suppose I saved a life. A little girl (about 1-1/2 or so) began choking at one of those all you can eat places. The family just sat and looked at her gagging, trying to make her drink, patting her on the back etc… It obviously wasn’t doing any good. I got up from my table, walked across the restaurant, snatched her up and turned her over my knee whist whacking her between the shoulder blades. The parents just looked at me. She started crying, the bits of food were on the floor and I figured she was okay. I sat her back in her chair and watched her breathe for a minute then walked back to my table.
The whole thing was very surreal.
Yes.
(I’m so terse. Yeah. Sue me.)
Does giving blood count? Howabout being an organ donor upon my death?
There has been a few people I wanted to kill but didn’t. Does that count as saving their life?
Yes, once, but it’s a long story.
I was sitting out by an apartment pool drinking a beer with a friend. This kid…about 4 walks out pool side with his swim shorts. I am keeping an eye on him bc I am an old lifeguard. Never see an adult but I keep watching. He proceeds to jump right in to the 4 ft. Can’t swim a lick. I jumped in and scooped him up pretty easily. His little feet were running before he got connected to the pool deck. He took off around the corner. I wanted to tell his mom what happened but he was out of there so quick, I never saw which apartment he went into. I wanted to let her know cuz I wanted her to get him back in the water soon so he wouldn’t be terrified. Also…I wanted her to know the kid’s mind worked like that. What was he thinking? Why wasn’t he being more closely supervised?
As a lifeguard, I have rescued several, but that was always an on the clock deal. This one I have described was the one that gave me a scare. I could have very easily not been there. This kid might have drowned.
Yep; my freshman year of college, a friend from home called me at school and mentioned that she was very depressed and had just swallowed an entire bottle of heart medication, and her parents were asleep and didn’t know anything about it. That’s when I discovered you can’t call 911 from another area code.
I called the nonemergency police line and explained the situation, and then called my friend back and kept her on the phone until a squad car showed up at her house. The cops didn’t take her in, but the commotion woke up her parents, who figured out what was going on and checked her into the psych ward for a few weeks.
Yeah, I did once. Very surreal. (Long and sorta bloody)
I was woken from sleep at about 3:30 AM on a Monday morning by someone screaming like they were getting killed. I figured someone was getting beat or robbed as the nieghborhood I lived in sucked. I pulled on a shirt, grabbed my bat and ran outside. I ran down the stairs and saw a guy sitting next to a window at the next apartment builing. The window was broken and the guy was holding nis right arm and there was blood all over the place. I ran around to the front door, which was locked, and yelled at him to let me in. He couldn’t get up so I ran around to the window and climbed in. I asked him to take his hand off his arm and when he did blood gushed all over the place. At that point I ran ino the kitchen and grabbed the first towel I saw. I had the rather odd thought that I should ask the guy if using the towel was ok. Then reality hit and I ran over to the guy and used the towel as a sorta half assed tourenquet(SP?)-pressure bandage.
Then things started getting wierd. Once I got his arm wrapped in the towel, in a very awkward position, the guy starts going into shock. He stopped screaming and got really calm and started apologizing to me. Then he started crying. Then he wanted to go to sleep. That cycled a couple of times. I found myself at one point asking him who did his tattoo’s in an effort to keep him awake.
About this time, 5 minutes later according to a nieghbor of mine, the cops show up. A cop walks in and I tell him that he needs to grab onto the towel because my arms were starting to cramp. The cop told me I had it under control and to just wait for the paramedics. I would have gladly strangled that cop. About 5 minutes later an EMT walked in. He looked at the situation thought it wasn’t a big deal. I told him he needed to do something about the bleeding. He told me that it was ok and to let go. He was about 5 feet from me when I let go. Blood started spewing, the EMT eyes went really wide in a look of shock and he ran over to the guy. I walked out.
At this point I REALLY wanted a cigarette. All the nieghbors were outside with a bunch of cops. As luck would have it no one had a smoke. One of the cops offered to give me a ride to the 7-11 a couple blocks away. I would have gladly kissed that cop. So I got into his car and he dropped me off in front of the store. I walked in in a state of shock. I was really freaked out by this point. So I got to the counter and asked the clerk for a pack of Winstons. He grabbed a pack and from a couple feet tossed them onto the counter. At that point I noticed that I was soaked and splattered with blood up to my elbows and my legs were not much better. I looked at the clerk and said “Sorry man, long story. I’ll just leave the bills in the sink ok?”. He nodded and I put the bills in the sink and told him to keep the change.
When I got back to my apartment everyone but my nieghbor and some cops were gone. Jeff, my nieghbor, pulled out a bottle of whiskey and I did like 8 shots and never felt a thing. While I was gone he had drawn me a bleach bath in my bathroom. I hadn’t locked my door obviously. I took a bath and finally crashed a few hours later.
The next day I woke up to the ringing phone. Somehow my bosses found out about the whole incident and gave me the day off. I was really happy about that because I was feeling like death.
Later that evening I went to the 7-11 to get a DP and some smokes. There was an ambulance outside. The same clerk who was on the night before was there. He greeted me like an old friend and told me that all my stuff was on the house. (Apparently the EMT’s told him why a guy covered in blood was buying smokes at 3:45 in the morning) He then called to the EMT’s. I recognized the EMT who first came in the room. The first thing I asked him was the condition of ‘the window breaking guy’ since I didn’t know his name. The EMT told me “Well, I really shouldn’t tell you this but…” and went on to explain that the guy had basically shredded his arm, was in surgury for 4 hours and would have bled out if I hadn’t retarded the bleeding. He then told me to get an AIDS test because the guy was whacked out on drugs.
And after that: nothing. The window breaking guys parents cleaned out the apartment while I was sleeping and I never heard or saw the guy again. To this day it still bugs me that they never even bothered to thank me. Oh well, I’d still do the same thing today.
On the bright side this, and a few other incidents, make me feel sure that if something bad goes wrong I will deal with it in a reasonable way.
Slee
Yes. A few times. I used to work in the ER of a hospital and assisted the doctors and nurses in keeping people alive and, later, I stopped a couple of suicides by talking them out of it. On one, I sent the police over who got the person after they had downed a bunch of pills and rushed them to the local ER for treatment.
Slee-awesome story!! The cigarette thing–oh my god!!sounds like a scene from a movie!! That was cool of the cop to give you a ride. Dude’s a loser for not thanking you but maybe he was embarassed?
I’m an ICU nurse–done it countless times. It’s a really cool feeling when things turn out okay in the long run for the pt. But after a while you get tired of people trying to die all the time. Just being around it–the possibility of it–all the time can become kind of a drag. (If you let it)
It isn’t always as dramatic as some may think–the coolest saves are the times that you pick up on a detail or subtle change that others have missed-that if you didn’t notice or figure it out, shit would’ve hit the fan later!!
Possibly. I woke up my neighbor (at least, I think I did) whose house was on fire. Not a little fire, either, nossir, so it was a pretty close thing. The whole story.
Thanks Nevermind,
The whole thing was really surreal. Especially the fact that I didn’t realize I was walking around looking like an extra from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.
The window breaking guy apparently was whacked out on drugs and didn’t mean to cause himself harm. I figure that he had eonough problems and his parents were probably more concerned with getting him straight than anything else.
And Kudos to you for doing your job. I couldn’t do it, I actually hate the sight of blood. I have nothing but respect for RN’s and Doc who put it on the line every day. So ::raising a beer:: here’s to you. You rock. And if you don’t hear this often enough, Thank You!
Slee
Slee-AWw
thanks man :o
Cheers!
Well, I don’t know if I saved their lives, but we got them out of a very long and potentially dangerous night. My partner, mother and I were at point Pele national park,the most southern point (excluding a little island) of Canada. It literaly forms a point of beach in Lake Eire. A little powerboat about 50 yards from the point with a few passengers fires a flare and we hear them screaming, I guess their motor conked out. There is no way to swim to shore as the currents in that area can drag a person underwater for miles. In a rowboat in a great lake in the middle of the night is not somewhere you want to be. They are drifting farther away, my partner and mother stay waving their shirts to let them know we see them. I go to call the coast guard. Unfortunately there are no phones around so I have to run 5 km back to an interpretive center and get the cleanup crew to call 911. It was a rough paved road and I had to run barefoot because the sandals I was wearing were too floppy. Tore the heck out of my feet and couldn’t walk properly for a couple weeks.
A rescue boat and helicopter were sent out and they were found about an hour later. I had to walk back to the point and was passed by police and park ranger cars and they didn’t offer me a lift or even ask what I was doing walking around a closed park at night. Fortunately someone at the interprative center gave me a pair of socks and a bottle of water (it was 35 C) so the walk back was less painful. An hour later I get back to the point to meet my partner and mother who were answering some questions. By this time it is dark. My mother said they were treated very rudely. They weren’t even going to give us a lift back to the center but my mother insisted.
Actually, after reading **Slee[/b['s story, I did remember something. I once saved my sister’s life. It’s one of those things the family never talks about, because honestly, no one knows what happened. I just remember waking up to her over me when I was about thirteen or fourteen, unable to breath. I didn’t do much but run to my parents and hold her until the ambulence arrived, but if she hadn’t come to me at that point, we probably would have found her dead in her room the next morning.
I’m glad the two of us have worked things out.
Twice, for me. Both times at Prince Solm’s Park in New Braunsfel, TX.
For those who don’t know what that is, take a good size river (actually, the shortest river in the world at only three miles long, but quite a lot of water), send half of it through a dam, and send the other half through a curving “tube” chute. Put lots of drunk people on tubes through that chute, and you have one of the ways you can amuse yourself during Texas summers.
Anyway, right below there all of the river goes over a small (three-to-four-foot) dam. The hydraulics here are murder, literally. Those same drunken idiots float right over the dam, and are surprised when the hydraulics under the dam suck them back and flip 'em over. It’s pretty funny, actually. There are actually no lifeguards there.
I like to hang out there, myself. After swimming the chute for an hour or so, I swim down to the dam and look for money. The drunken idiots usually lose all their money, and usually everything else they happened to have on them at the time. One month I actually made rent there… 
I’ve saved two people there. One was an 18 year-old girl- she got sucked into the hydraulics, banged her head on the dam, and (luckily) floated out. Some people pulled her to shore, and stood around like the drunken idiots they were. I swam over and did CPR 'til the paramedics showed up- she lived.
The other was a seven-year-old boy. Same story, got stuck in the hydraulics. I actually saw him go under, though, and was able to swim through the current to pull him out of the backflow. Gave him CPR 'til the paramedics. I swear, that place has a revolving account with the paramedics…
Just once.
I was swimming in a public pool with my then best friend. We were both about 10. Most Aussie kids swim from an early age, but my friend was an Indian migrant and wasn’t too confident in the water. Long story short, he got into trouble and I dragged him to safety. Not sure where the pool supervisors were; I guess if I hadn’t done anything they would have saved him anyway. But I got to save a life!
I’ve had a few occasions to up my karma-meter…
-
Working in a burger joint I was training a new employee how to clean the Frosty machine. Having just taken the bolts out to show her the internal mechanisms, she reached up and turned the power on… dumb cow… Out shot the twirly bit/mixer thingy majig - right at her face. Instinctively I shot out my hand and caught it just before it hit her in the face. I handed her a mop… Finished my shift, albeit in a bit of pain. Two days later an uncle saw my wrist and asked about it. Nothing much, just hurt a bit. His daughter was an x-ray tech so asked if she would come have a look at it. Seems it had dislocated it severely. OOPS. When the doc set the thing I nearly punched him in the face. My cousin had to grab my good hand to stop me. Oh well, small price to pay for one more idiot to grace this Earth, eh?
-
Was a nanny in CT for 2 kids. We went on holiday to Cabo San Lucas. Out of 2 weeks I had 1 day off. That 1 day I chose to just sit by the pool drinking Dos Equis and taking an occasional lap to cool off. Anyhoo… The family came down for a swim. I was playing with the eldest (about 7). He got bored and they all went back up to the condo… or so I thought… When I got out of the pool something made me look back. There under the water on the bottom of the pool was the little girl (about 3 1/2). I dove in, pulled her out and proceeded to give her CPR whilst screaming for the parents. They came down just as the little girl was taking her first breaths again. Lord knows how long she’d been down there. We took her up to the condo and got her comfortable. They didn’t call an ambulance or anything and she seemed okay - just tired and pukey from all the pool water in her.
After a while, the dad pulled me a side and ripped me a new asshole for allowing this to happen… WTF??? It was my day off for starters, so not really responsible for them that day. And they had brought the kids down for a swim. THEY should have been more aware.
ARGH!! It still irks me to this day. Needless to say, when we got back I took the gal to the doctors to make sure all was okay, and gave my notice. Come to find out that couple had been through 6 nannies in just over a year - I lasted the longest… Goody for me?
-
Ex was an insomniac so was often up all night for days on end. One night he fixed some chicken, had the stereo cranked (made it easy for me to sleep I tells ya). Just dozing off again at 3:30 am when he comes stumbling into the bedroom, bouncing off the walls. I was going to give him Holy Hell but I saw the look of panic on his face… He was choking and to the point of passing out. Just as he went down, I caught him and gave him the Heimlich Maneuver. Out popped the offending chicken tidbit… Put his butt to bed and got up and went to work early - very early…
-
On way back home from visiting neice and nephew in Southern Oregon when I noticed there was a car driving erratically ahead of me, then a billow of smoke. It pulled to the side and more smoke poured forth. No one was stopping to check out what was happening. I slowed to see if it was serious when I saw the flames. An elder Black man jumped form the car, ran around the other side and was throwing things from the car and trying to get his wife out.
As no one was helping I pulled in front a couple hundred yards and ran back. Flames were shooting out of the hood (bonnet) of the car and the lady was in tears. She was severely disabled and the wheelchair was in the back of the car. Rather than try to get it out (afraid the car was about to explode) we cradled her and carried her from the car. He started to run back to get more things out of the car, but I stopped him - Thank the Gods… The wheels exploded and he broke down in tears. Everything they owned was in that car… all their money, all their posessions… everything… It was now going up in flames… 
A California Highway worker pulled up, jumped out and tried to take over this situation. Demanding to know what was happening, what was wrong… just being a butt really. I told him to go call for an ambulance, the cops and whomever else he could think of…
We went back to his wife. She was having chest pains and stuff so I ran for my car to get my stethoscope and blood pressure kit. Gave her some nitroglycerin and got her as comfy as possible. It was at this point the gas tank exploded. The fella really lost it then.
The California highway fella came running back with a tiny fire extinguisher… yeah, like that was gonna do anything!!! I told him to go direct traffic around us to keep everyone in 1 lane away from us and flag down the cops and such when they came.
Anyhoo… all the right people get there, I helped the paramedics get the lady loaded in the ambulance, the local TV people showed up, the fire fighters were hosing the car down. The CA highway fella immediately jumped on they media and began telling the ‘whole story’. I chatted with the couple a few more minutes, both thanking me. I gave them the number of a mate who worked with a local charity who might be able to help when they got out of the hospital.
Got in my car, cranking up my John Denver CD and tootled back to California.
- Last week I saved the hubby from drowning in the bath… I took my foot off his head…
Only indirectly: I put out a tent conflagration at Glastonbury Festival that, had it spread through the camping grounds, would have probably burned a whole load of people.
yojimbo is probably too modest to post to this thread, but I can report that he’s saved at least two lives (IIRC): hauled a drowning man out of a canal, and saved someone involved in a road accident (correct me if I’m wrong).