# Falling in love with someone who saved your life **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136 "2014-06-05T17:19:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gretchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@Gretchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchion)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/1 "2014-06-05T17:19:42Z")
It happens in TV and movies, but I’ve never known of it in real life. Has anyone here ever developed feelings for someone who saved your life, or saved someone’s life and they developed feelings for you? Or have you ever known anyone who either of these happened to? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/2 "2014-06-05T17:50:10Z")
> [@Gretchion](#): > > It happens in TV and movies, but I’ve never known of it in real life. Has anyone here ever developed feelings for someone who saved your life, or saved someone’s life and they developed feelings for you? Or have you ever known anyone who either of these happened to? No but those nurses in the IC ward sure looked prettier in hindsight. Must have been all of those good drugs they were putting into my IV drip. Hell, I didn’t even mind when she yanked the tubes from my nose and the catheter out of my you know what. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/3 "2014-06-05T17:54:20Z")
This one time, at Band-Aid camp… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/4 "2014-06-05T21:58:38Z")
Sandy Duncan had a brain tumor and [ended up marrying one of her doctors](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0242098/bio). Boston Marathon survivor James Costello [married his rehab nurse](http://nypost.com/2013/12/17/boston-marathon-bombing-victim-engaged-to-his-rehab-nurse/). Stephen Hawking also [married his nurse](http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/55031/stephen-hawking-book-reveals-anguish-his-two-marriages). Almost, but not quite, Mary Tyler Moore met her third husband, a doctor, when he was [treating her mother.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Tyler_Moore#Family) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/5 "2014-06-05T22:25:45Z")
A well-known mathematician fell off a mountain (or maybe it was a ski accident) and married the nurse who brought him back to health. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/6 "2014-06-05T23:35:58Z")
When coming out of anesthesia or sedation in the hospital, I never fail to fall in love with the first nurse I see. I’ve heard that that is fairly common. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/7 "2014-06-06T01:13:52Z")
[Firefighter Marries the Woman He Rescued](http://firelink.monster.com/news/articles/17297-firefighter-marries-the-woman-he-rescued) [Night of horror was genesis of new love story for Clearwater woman](http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/night-of-horror-was-genesis-of-new-love-story-for-clearwater-woman/2106907) [Top cop marries ex-kidnap victim](http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/03/02/08/top-cop-marries-ex-kidnap-victim) (though he wasn’t directly involved in her rescue) [Does this qualify?](http://kdvr.com/2014/02/17/he-lost-275-pounds-reunited-with-love/) Dangerously obese man gets back in touch with high school sweetheart 20 years after their breakup, loses 275 pounds, they get married. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/8 "2014-06-06T01:17:10Z")
My grandparents met while serving in WWII - he as some kind of Navy gunner, she as a nurse. It would be a stretch to say that she saved his life, but they did meet via medical services being provided. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/9 "2014-06-06T17:50:27Z")
[Study](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal) - being in arousing (e.g. rush-giving) situations can make you associate that with the person and believe it came as a result of the person and not the situation. I’m not sure of any newer research. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/10 "2014-06-06T18:30:09Z")
Not Necessarily life saving, but there are lots of people who frequently fall in love with people in need of help (of several varieties like drugs, alcohol, weight, family problems, psych issues) because they want so badly to “fix” them, only to break up when the person no longer has problems. There’s a name for it, I can’t recall. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/11 "2014-06-06T19:15:42Z")
A friends father married the grief counsellor who helped him through the death of his first wife. Not quite the same but pretty close. That was 15 years ago and his kids still haven’t forgiven him. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/12 "2014-06-07T14:06:23Z")
> [@PurpleClogs](#): > > Not Necessarily life saving, but there are lots of people who frequently fall in love with people in need of help (of several varieties like drugs, alcohol, weight, family problems, psych issues) because they want so badly to “fix” them, only to break up when the person no longer has problems. There’s a name for it, I can’t recall. In guys I’ve heard it called White Knight Syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/13 "2014-06-09T16:11:54Z")
> **[Florence Nightingale effect](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale_effect)** > > The Florence Nightingale effect is a trope where a caregiver falls in love with their patient, even if very little communication or contact takes place outside of basic care. Feelings may fade once the patient is no longer in need of care. > The effect is named for Florence Nightingale, a pioneer in the field of nursing in the second half of the 19th century. Due to her dedication to patient care, she was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" because of her habit of making rounds at night, previously ... ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/14 "2014-06-10T02:34:00Z")
The day before my wedding, my wife and I were running errands when we came around a curve in the road to find a car on its roof, wheels still spinning. The doors were jammed shut in the collision with a power pole, so I grabbed my Halligan tool (always prepared) and opened the back hatch. I crawled in on my back to the girl, and thank Og she was only about a hundred pounds; I popped her seat belt, and lowered her down to the roof, and pulled her out the back. We waited with her about 5 minutes until the fire truck and ambulance arrived, then took off. We never caught her name, and we didn’t give ours. Years later, she tracked us down through my friends at the responding station, and wanted to invite us to her wedding, which she may never have had if I had not A, pulled her from the car, and B, stopped some asshat puffing a cigar from crawling through the huge curtain of gasoline pouring down from the tank. I think she would have been alright, but not in her or her family’s eyes, so we attended the wedding and 2 years after that, they named their firstborn my middle name. Falling in love would have been fun too, 'cause she had huuuge tits. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/15 "2014-06-10T04:49:23Z")
**ducati** , good for you for saving someone’s life, but if you didn’t fall in love with her and she didn’t fall in love with you, then what’s the point of posting it in this thread except to brag about having saved someone’s life? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/16 "2014-06-10T05:06:46Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > **ducati** , good for you for saving someone’s life, but if you didn’t fall in love with her and she didn’t fall in love with you, then what’s the point of posting it in this thread except to brag about having saved someone’s life? He got to mention the huuuge tits. What more reason does he need? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/17 "2014-06-10T05:24:52Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > He got to mention the huuuge tits. > What more reason does he need? Fair enough. 😛 I was just puzzled because I wondered if he was trying to hint that the rescuee had in fact fallen in love with him, or what. ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/18 "2014-06-10T11:07:21Z")
My great grandmother was a nurse in WWI, and kept a little book for the soldiers under her care to write in. I think they were all pretty much in love with her, judging by what they wrote! 😃 My mother has the book, but if I go there and this thread is still going I’ll copy out a poem. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/19 "2014-06-10T14:29:50Z")
Robin Gibb rescued In Molly Hullis from the Hither Green rail crash, and later married her. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136/20 "2014-06-10T16:50:29Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > He got to mention the huuuge tits. > What more reason does he need? That and yet another of his exciting, unusual adventures. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/falling-in-love-with-someone-who-saved-your-life/690136.md?page=2)