The closest i’ve came was that I pulled a baby out of a pool. I just had to reach over the side so it wasn’t a huge deal.
I don’t think that I have but there are two people out there who will swear otherwise. In two separate instances, I talked a person out of a nasty bad acid trip. The first time was horrifying and scary. The second time wasn’t as bad since I had done it once before.
I Heimlich’ed my roommate in the late '80s. I walked near him on the way out the door. He made sort of what I though was a weird coughing sound so, with one foot out the door I turned to look at him. That sound was what saved him - if I hadn’t heard him I probably wouldn’t have turned around to see what was happening.
I also have TWICE rescued my impetuous daughter from swimming pools.
Land, sea and air… Hard to be active and not get into situations…
Some are really exciting… some are just sorta there.
Helped pull a 10 or 11 year old kid out of a public pool when i was like 15 with the help of 2 older guys.
Amazingly all the adults were just standing around shouting at each other, and I mean this boy was turning like gray.
So I gave him mouth to mouth as best as I could remember from a CPR class in the Boy Scouts. About 30 seconds later he coughed up a bunch of vomit in my mouth and started breathing again.
Yeah, on the one hand that wasn’t tasty, but he came out fine so I wouldn’t trade it for the best cheesecake in the world.
I was always afraid I would be one of these gawkers when the real thing happened… but in two ocassions I did move forward even if nothing much was required. The first time I was quite pissed in seeing so many people just staring and getting in the way. Luckily the guy coughed himself out of choking.
The other time this 8 yr old girl fell onto what seemed thin boards over a deep pit… I couldn’t reach her with my hands… so I just totally hung myself over the edge to grab her with my legs. (Hooked my feet under her arms) Didn’t have the strength to pull us both up though… but my two friends fished me out. I just needed to somehow get hold of her fast. Luckily those boards were much more robust than they appeared.
At least I know I don’t stare at a crisis like an idiot… and I sure hope I do act next time.
Happy most consider blood donation as saving lives… I’ve save a few then…
Well, when I am dead, I will be an organ donor.
Nic2004…the hostage situation was in 1970.
I was an officer in the Air Force, and we were having our monthly beer bash on base. One of the enlisted men got drunk, and myself and 2 of my senior enlisted men decided to take him home. We put him in one of our cars and drove to his home. When we got there, he jumped out of the car, ran inside, grabbed a 45 cal automatic, and threatened to shoot his two daughters, wife, and sister-in-law. We were able to get him to let the sister-in-law and wife out while he kept the girls, and then I offered to take their place as hostage. He agreed.
So I sat there for several hours talking to him while he kept the automatic on me. Finally, he was sober enough to agree to give me the gun, and he agreed to some conditions for his surrender. I pretty much couldn’t just see him shot those little girls. Rock and a hard place…it boiled down to an ethical problem for me, so I did what seemed right. And I’m glad I did.
A person at house I was staying at had taken some LSD. He was upstairs yelling at who knows what. Everyone else was asleep. After awhile I noticed the yelling had stopped. I was about to go to sleep but I decided to go upstairs to check on him. Just like in a movie, the window was open and he was not there. I looked out and saw him lying in the snow not moving. I woke people up and we hauled him back inside, wrapped him in blankets and put him in front of the heater. He was fine but I think he would have just stayed there in the snow if I hadn’t done something.
Sunstone, that took balls of solid brass. Well done.
I donated a kidney. The friday before I was to go into surgery a friend at work asked what I was doing over the weekend. I said “I’m having strangers cut a chunk of flesh out of my abdomen, Paul. What are you doing?” Yeah, I was a little nervous.
I also pulled a drowning child out of a river, and I helped get an alcoholic friend into the hospital when he was trying to drink himself to death, though he still may not be out of the woods yet.
A shotgun?!
Are you sure? A shotgun should have *obliterated * his kidney and tore up most of his abdomen. He should have quickly bled to death.
A full point-blank blast probably, but a ricocheted pellet could have done that.
My (ex)wife ran into the room, choking on a piece of cheese. Her mom was freaking out, but I just stood up and did the Heimlich, sending the cheese flying halfway across the room.
Where the dog ate it just after it landed.
Same here. And if one of these kinds of accidents ever comes upon me, I only hope I’ll rise to the situation as you guys have done. 
Continuing the hijack… I think you’re oversimplifying a bit.
If you look at two people, one of whom is a charity-giving friend-supporting puppy-loving responsible loving caring person, and one of whom is an alcoholic self-destructive abusive asshole, can you predict from that which one of them, in a split second life-or-death situation, will risk their life to save another?
And does that split second behavior in any way cancel out the way they are the other 99.9999% of the time?
Oh, and Sunstone: You are a true hero.