saving lives

Have you ever been instrumental in keeping someone alive? It happened to me twice. A few years ago, our neighbor (apt) we heard his smoke detector. I thought, ah it’ll stop. But it kept going, my son wanted to check, so we went and knocked, it was his detector all right. We went to the back and saw smoke in the kitchen so went and called the fire dept. They came, thankfully his front door was unlocked and they went in and threw him out the front door (he wsn’t waking as he’d been at the bar).

A few days ago, we were visiting our friend, she is home all day, not too well, and sleeps a Lot. Her son was visiting (and in the basement)and so were we. She put on two tea light candles and the card I gave her was behind one. We were talking and i looked over and it looked a little too bright. The card had tipped forward somehow, and the candle set it up.
She put it in an ashtray but didn’t want to pour her beer on it as it is alcohol and we thought it might make it worse.
So my son went and got a cup of water and put it out.
If we had left and she had went to sleep, she wouldn’t have woken in time.
I hate fires.

Not singlehandedly that I’m aware of. But I did guilt my SO into going to the ER for “constipation” which turned out to be diverticulitis with an intestinal rupture (fatal without surgical treatment). He nearly walked out several times, and I had to reguilt him into staying put until they figured out what was going on. (I also had to bargain with the nurses and security to let him go outside - with me - and smoke a cigarette. “He’s walking out either way…the only difference is if you let him go smoke, he may come back in.”)

I also prevented a couple of medication errors one terrible nursing instructor almost made me do to a patient. I didn’t so much save her life as not endanger it by listening to my instructor. That was not a fun battle, but I’m glad I stood my ground and didn’t give the meds. (And I have the same instructor again next semester, gods help me. And the patients.)

Did the Heimlich maneuver on a brother some years ago.

And three years ago I was riding my bike and looked off to the side where there was a tractor with a man underneath. I thought he was changing the oil or something. It just did not look right. I circled back and found the man stuck under the tractor with the big tiller caught between his legs and the motor running. I had just put a box cutter on my bike, which I used to cut his pants off and drag him out. I was one happy camper.

I did a swimming rescue of a couple of college kids that swamped their small sailboat a couple of hundred yards off shore when I was 17. It was around Easter and the water was cold. They were becoming hypothermic and one could not walk when I got her ashore.
I also physically restrained a guy from lighting a smoke after an auto accident when there was spilled gas all around.
There was a guy that wiped out on his motorcycle. He was up and talking but when I asked him where he lived he replied “I don’t live anywhere.”. I called 911 and they choppered him out.
I’ve donated over 6 gallons of blood. Does that count? :smiley:

Absolutely. And whether my daughter, son, SO and myself received your blood or someone else’s, I’ll say thank you just the same. Blood donation has saved all of us at some point or another.

A few times. I’m an EMT and fireman…

Does choosing not to kill someone count??

I saw a towplane about to land on top of a glider. I made a dive for the radio and told the tow pilot to abort his landing. He did and there was no crash. I don’t get to buy my own beer when that glider pilot is around.

Does my own life count?
I saw a car that was not going to stop for a red light, and got my motorcycle stopped. The car hit two other cars and I was hit by broken bits of tail light. Oh yeah, I had the two dogs in the side car. Might not have killed us, but it would have been ugly.

I also once rode a motorcycle with an ineffective muffler. Explaination.

If that’s the case I’ve saved the equivalent of a small city.

But seriously . . . I used to volunteer at a crisis intervention hotline, and I know I’ve helped to avert quite a few suicides, and probably some murders as well. Of course, we never heard back from the ones who followed through with their plans.

I’m a nurse in a critical care unit, so this happens on a very regular basis. Except on the odd occasion when I make a good catch with someone who’s being subtle about their crashing, it’s not as if they wouldn’t have lived without me. When I’m not there, other nurses are, and things pretty much run the same on my days off as they do on my days on.

I’ve taken people to the ER twice (both times was told the patient would have died if we had taken a bit longer) and extinguished small fires three times when everybody else present was freaking out/paralyzed.

If donating blood counts, then I also used to be a frequent donor: travel, low BP, tiny-but-extra-abundant red cells and old age wobble wobble mean I haven’t been able to donate for years.

Yes a younger cousin. They would have been dead in less than one more minute.

I had a co-worker about 10 years ago…his wife was diagnosed as having terminal thoracic cancer, and they were resigned to it.
My sister worked at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL…so I called her. My co-worker faxed the records up there. Chief of Thoracic Surgery steps out of surgery on a break, looks them over, and says “What were they going to do, let her sufficate? Of course we can help her.”

I’ve lost track of them since then, but I know she lived for at least 5 years longer than “expected”…possibly still alive. And they had a ~12 year old daughter when this happened, so they were important years.

My role was to say “You guys should meet my sister”…not a big thing, but with big results.
-D/a