It appears I’m not alone. Back in 1992 I was certified in CPR. During the classes, they covered infant CPR. A few months later, my wife and 1 year old daughter and I are on a plane to Pittsburgh. My daughter was eating some pieces of cantaloupe sitting on mommy’s lap. Her face turned red and she starts flailing around a bit but not making any noise. I didn’t even think about it, but got up, turned her upside down, cradled her along my arm and smacked her in the back. Out pops a piece of melon that was lodged in her throat. I think every parent should learn CPR!
Any parent who neglects their kids deserves to have their kids taken away from them.
Where I am, if you leave your kid locked in a car alone, even for five minutes then you get arrested, gaoled and investigated by child protection.
My story:
About 3 hours ago I was volunteering at a local phone counselling centre. This lady rings up, sounds very out of it, and tells me that she’s just taken 10 slow acting pain killers and some burbon. She’s got another 20 pain killers and a bottle of sleeping tablets that she’s planning on taking later. Whilst keeping her on the line I have to ring up Poisons Info, my supervisor, the ambulance, try to get her to give me a name and address (eventually successful) and get the ambos out there.
I think I saved a life, although I wonder if I should have.
[long story]I had a drinking buddy, back in my drinking days, who had a fishing boat. He liked to fish/drink at night and since a light underwater is known to attract fish, he decided to make himself an underwater light. His idea was to use the boat’s twelve volt battery to power the light. Since he had an old table lamp, he decided to take the socket out of it and buy a twelve volt DC bulb from a camper store. It was his intention to insert the socket into a six foot long piece of plastic pipe, which he would then hang over the side of the boat. He decided to test the idea by building a prototype, outside, on his side lawn. He didn’t have any plastic pipe on hand, but he did have a piece of galvanized metal pipe of the correct diameter. He wedged the socket into the metal pipe and connected a plug to the wires. He didn’t have a DC light bulb, but he did have a conventional 120 Volt 100 Watt AC bulb, so he screwed that into the light socket and plugged it in. Plugged it into a regular, conventional AC outlet socket. Glory be, he thought, it works. But, he wondered, would it work underwater? So, he laid it down and went to get a bucket of water.
I drove onto his driveway just as he was preparing to plunge the very hot AC light bulb into the bucket of cold water.
I yelled for him to stop, and then I asked him to think about what he had planned to do. When his remaining three brain cells fired, he blushed and unplugged the contraption.[/long story]
I was a lifeguard for six summers at a few lakes here in the area. As a result, I’ve rescued plenty of people. While most were not in dire circumstances, and probably would’ve been helped by a fellow swimmer, there was at least one case when the victim would’ve been screwed without me. She walked right off the drop off and submerged immediately. I grabbed her by the hand and brought her back in. She didn’t let go for about 15 minutes. Those are the ones that help you forget about the 8 year old who didn’t respond to CPR and wound up breathing by machine for four days until the plug is pulled. I was only tangentially involved with that one, but I can still see he’s lifeless body laying on the beach.
Gave my son the Heimlich maneuver when he was about 1 1/2. He was jabbering away at the dinner table, then suddenly he couldn’t breathe. I pushed into his abdomen quick with one hand and out popped the food. It was kind of funny, because he went on jabbering his tale as if nothing had happened.
Does this count? Stopped 3 auto accidents from happening, 2 on freeways and 1 on the road.
Each time I saw two cars approach each other, the drivers not seeing the other car. I honked before they could hit. The one on the local road, the cars literally braked and stopped within inches (under 1 foot of each other.) This would have been a pretty serious injury for sure.
The ones on the freeway were both 2 cars merging into each other from more than a lane away. The 2nd time I had wondered if they would really hit and wondered if I should do nothing. But I was fairly close behind them and didn’t want to hit them so I honked.
I have a couple of maybes and one definite.
The summer before last I was in a traffic accident, totaled my car, and needed minor surgery. The next Thursday I went out for dinner with my father. He showed up an hour late with his shirt on backwards and a shuffling gait. I let him sleep over at my place the next night and tried to make arrangements to get him to a doctor, but he got lost and couldn’t find the office. He went back to his apartment. He lives alone.
Saturday and Sunday I got very worried. This was during a heat wave. Afternoon highs were over 100 degrees Farenheit. His air conditioning was out. He was having trouble getting out of bed for a glass of water. Told me he didn’t have any food in the house. I gave him instructions for a grocery delivery service. He didn’t succeed at placing an order.
There wasn’t anyone I could call to check in on him. I was sixteen miles away, broke, no car, and on bed rest. Something told me this was worth a risk. I started on a bicycle at dawn and rode very slowly. Another cyclist who was breaking traffic laws even ran into my leg. Got a tire-shaped bruise on my calf for that. I showed up at Dad’s door with a gallon of bottled water and two frozen meals. He didn’t let me in.
Instead he insisted on eating at a corner coffee shop. He was badly dehydrated and not walking well. Fell on the way there and took ten minutes to right himself. I couldn’t lift him. Then he wandered away from the restaurant when I wasn’t looking and got lost in his own neighborhood. It took a police helicopter and two patrol cars four hours to find him. He still refused to go to the hospital.
Only after I got his big brother on the phone from the other end of the country did Dad agree to get himself checked out. Three days later they removed a 5.5cm malignant tumor from his brain. If I hadn’t acted his life would have ended within a month.