Ever Save a Life?

Beezer

Beezer

Well-known Member
I'd be the first to admit that I have quite the sketchy life resume. But this one particular day I certainly rose to the occasion.

I was in a line-up of cars at a stop light. A young boy (I'd give him 10 years old) walked in front of my stopped car to cross the road. But instead of looking both ways, he only looked in my direction...for some reason. I peered ahead and noticed a speeding SUV barreling down towards him. I instinctively yelled out...

"No! NO!! Stop...stop...STOP!!!!!!!

The kid froze in his tracks and just stared at me. The speeding SUV clipped the side of his ear! The boy stumbled across the road and braced himself against a tree. I pulled over and approached him.

Me: "Are you okay?"

Boy: "Holy Cow!! I almost died there!!"

Me: "You're going to be fine, just relax."

Boy: "You...you...you saved my life!"

Me: "Well I hope you have a great, long life there kiddo!"

ONE more step and that boy would have died. Just glad I was paying attention and didn't have my car radio on or anything. Phew!
 

Anybody in my place would have done the same thing, I believe.

I'm just fortunate that my window was down...that I wasn't distracted by a passenger or the radio...that I was able to see the oncoming speeding vehicle. It all just worked out.

There's an old saying...

"Sometimes good luck just comes from paying attention." ;)
 
I performed CPR on 2 people who would certainly have died if I hadn't.

One of them was only 3 years old. She was my neighbor, Cindy's kid, and I heard her blood-curdling screams while she was pulling her lifeless little girl up out of their swimming pool. We lived in a fairly remote area, and there were no cell-phones. Cindy called 911 while I did CPR, but rescue didn't get there until at least 10 minutes later. By then, Cindy had gotten little Erin out of her wet clothes already, and had her in her lap all wrapped up in a warm blanket.

I was scheduled to work that day, but was sent home soon after I got there because some equipment froze up. I was waiting for a call saying it was un-froze. Lucky for Erin, that call never came. The equipment had to be replaced.
 
yes my sister who took an overdose of Opiods ( Pethidine pills ) in my home...

They were my pills, given to me by my doctor for Chronic pain.. and my 15 year old sister arrived at my home out of the blue one day.. Odd for her to turn up like that because we lived a long way away... but she seemed ok.. and that night she went to sleep in my spare room.. I was just 23 or 24 myself with a husband and a 2 year old.. ..

When I went to wake my sister in the morning.. I couldn't get any response after calling her 2 or 3 times ..I turned her over and I recognised the signs immediately from when my mother would take overdoses..

Long story short, she was still barely breathing.. but unconscious, she was Blue around her mouth.. and her skin was almost translucent.. .. I knew she might die if I didn't get help immediately.. so while waiting for an ambulance, I sat her up even tho' she was completely limp.. and at one stage had to administer mouth to mouth as she stopped breathing.. .. the Ambulance got there very quickly ( I dread to think if it had been today when Ambulances take hours sometimes).. and they took over, and took her to hospital where she had her stomach pumped... and was released after 24 hours

To this day I have no idea why she chose to try to end her life in my home... she's never talked about it
 
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I guess I saved my wife's life once. She was a drove a red cross ambulance and while sitting at a traffic light, she was hit hard from behind. I mean hard enough to be pushed into the school bus that was stopped in front of her. She was a little sore. but, she seemed ok, so no big deal. Now, that night, I had decided to sleep in the room with her. (most know I never do that because of the demons that I can never shake). Anyway, I suddenly woke up around 2am. and realized my wife wasn't breathing. Called 911 and started cpr. After, at the hospital, they explained that the accident had bruised her innards which caused swelling and had cut off her air supply, so, had I not been in the room, I'd have had a corpse for a wife in the morning. (shudder). Who knows why I chose to sleep there that particular night?
The only other life I've saved was my own in Vietnam. But, to do that, I had to take someone else's life so nothing to be proud of there.
 
I pulled some 18-year-old kid out of a lake in Northern California after he had gone out too far and was struggling. Fortunately, he was not at the panic stage yet and I was able to talk to him while I grabbed his t-shirt and pulled him into shallow water. He had overestimated his swimming skills and stamina.
 
@Alligatorob - I hesitated to mention the other incident that happened while I was on my way to the corner store 4 or 5 years ago; Some homeless guy was overdosing on the sidewalk across the street. His friend was frantically trying to perform CPR on him but he wasn’t doing it correctly at all so I ran over while dialing 911, handed the friend my phone, and started compressions on the poor dude. He was filthy and he smelled awful, but he wasn't breathing so I had to do the breaths, too.

The friend had to keep repeating our location and re-explaining the situation to 911 while I just kept working on that poor guy. He finally pinked-up a bit and then he started gasping and coughing. It seemed hopeless for a while there, because he’s turning purplish-grey while 911 is deciding whose freaking *jurisdiction we’re in. For several minutes I was sure I was blowing into the mouth of a dead guy. But I guess repetitive training does indeed create muscle-memory - you're not supposed to stop until someone in authority tells you to.

A couple of cars and several people stopped and watched this whole thing, and I heard one of ‘em say "OMG, he shouldn’t put his mouth on that guy!" Like, in case he had covid or AIDS or whatever, and someone else said "What a waste of energy." And I thought about the number of homeless people doubling and even tripling in my area every month, and that some of them probably slowly die from a drug overdose or bleed out from stabbings while their drug-stupefied buddies, or sober people who are afraid to touch them, or who don't want to waste their energy, knowingly and unknowingly let them die.

(* depending on location, emergency dispatchers here have to determine whether to notify Sacramento city services or Sacramento county services: some areas belong to the sheriff's dept, others the city police, and still others the CHP; some get Sacramento Fire Department, others County Fire and Rescue.... and if an animal's involved, it's even more complicated.)
 
Yes, I wrote about it in another thread. It was on the airplane and the woman was lying down and not breathing, and I rushed to her aid and helped her breathe (pulled her head back and she gasped for air and started breathing).

I saved my mom's life - I was sixteen. She had had surgery that day and came home, and instead of lying down, was doing chores. That evening, when I came down to use the bathroom (we only had one in the house) I found her sitting there, her eyes bulging (the way my late husband's bulged the day he died). She was in shock. I called 911 and talked to her and honestly don't remember eveythnig I did, but they came and saved her life. No one else in the family knew about it until they woke up in the morning. My dad was quite distraught. Her shock came from a blood clot from the surgery. She was around 39, the same age her own mom died from a blood clot. It wasn't meant for her to go that time. God bless her, she's 88 and still going strong.

I also saved my little sister, who fell down from the slide and had a concussion. I carried her all the way home (I was around 9) and we got her medical help. I don't know if she would have died or not, but she was unconscious at that time. I still remember my arms aching by the time we reached home.
 
Murrmurr said:
@Alligatorob - I hesitated to mention the other incident that happened while I was on my way to the corner store 4 or 5 years ago; Some homeless guy was overdosing on the sidewalk across the street. His friend was frantically trying to perform CPR on him but he wasn’t doing it correctly at all so I ran over while dialing 911, handed the friend my phone, and started compressions on the poor dude. He was filthy and he smelled awful, but he wasn't breathing so I had to do the breaths, too.

The friend had to keep repeating our location and re-explaining the situation to 911 while I just kept working on that poor guy. He finally pinked-up a bit and then he started gasping and coughing. It seemed hopeless for a while there, because he’s turning purplish-grey while 911 is deciding whose freaking *jurisdiction we’re in. For several minutes I was sure I was blowing into the mouth of a dead guy. But I guess repetitive training does indeed create muscle-memory - you're not supposed to stop until someone in authority tells you to.

A couple of cars and several people stopped and watched this whole thing, and I heard one of ‘em say "OMG, he shouldn’t put his mouth on that guy!" Like, in case he had covid or AIDS or whatever, and someone else said "What a waste of energy." And I thought about the number of homeless people doubling and even tripling in my area every month, and that some of them probably slowly die from a drug overdose or bleed out from stabbings while their drug-stupefied buddies, or sober people who are afraid to touch them, or who don't want to waste their energy, knowingly and unknowingly let them die.

(* depending on location, emergency dispatchers here have to determine whether to notify Sacramento city services or Sacramento county services: some areas belong to the sheriff's dept, others the city police, and still others the CHP; some get Sacramento Fire Department, others County Fire and Rescue.... and if an animal's involved, it's even more complicated.)
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You did a good thing @Murrmurr and not one many people would have done.
 

Ever Save a Life?​


Twice.

When I was in my 20s, I pulled an old fella out of a swollen river, he was alive when he went into the ambulance, but I never saw him again.

About 20 years ago I was out walking in the Pennines when I heard yelping and whining. I followed the sounds and discovered a little bitch mongrel who had fell down a deep hole. I found a long log and lowered it carefully down the hole, then I swarmed down the log and lifted the little girl who was full of pups to safety. She had a collar with her name and address on , so I took her to her home. The owner, an elderly lady invited me in for a cup of tea, and right there in front of me, Jilly started giving birth to her puppies. That memory warms my heart. 😊
 
They left me in the car to watch the kids, they were about 4 and 7, all my cousins. I was barely 13.
4 yr old Dan was getting whiny, so I gave him a Life Saver to shut him up. He immediately began choking and gasping.

I dragged him out of the car, held him upside down by his ankles and gave a shake. I can still see that white Life-Saver bouncing onto the black asphalt parking lot and cracking in half.

Whew!
 
hollydolly said:
@Murrmurr ...the sobering thing about that second story of yours is that it's highly possible despite all your efforts that the guy died a few days or weeks later of yet another overdose..
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Very true. That's why one of the onlookers said "waste of time."

But maybe standing at Death's door turned a light on for him. It's certain he was contacted by a social worker. In Calif, hospitals are required to assign a social worker from mental health services to all overdose patients, and Sacramento always complies. At least there's that.

I realize your scenario is probably more likely, but he could have been run over by a truck, train, or automobile the next day, too. That guy's life is rife with risks. (say that 3 times real fast 😛 )

idk, I just couldn't keep walking. All the training kicked in, I guess. I've taken CPR certification courses 5 times over the years, and the last time was just this past spring, for my foster-care license. It's an important thing to know, imo.
 
I was going to rake leaves and mow grass today, but it’s kind of an ugly day with drizzle and chilly air conditions outside, so I thought about reading my book, but decided instead to look through this website when I spotted this thread and thought some of you may be interested in the following feature.

I had only been a State Trooper for 4 years, so I kind of got the jobs no one else begged for. It was a very ugly night on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, just past the Somerset exit, which is just east of Pittsburgh and noted for it’s icy, snowy, cold winters. On this night, it was sleeting and snowing. The state trucks were out putting some anti-skid materials on the roadway. The time was 10:10 p.m. when I received an emergency call that 2 semis, a Trailways bus and 3 cars were involved in an accident with injuries. This is called a Code 2 for short.

As I sped to the accident site, I was notified that 2 other units were also responding. When I got to the site, I noted that the accident had happened 17 minutes before I arrived, according to the state dispatcher. One car was really banged up pretty badly. I noticed a young woman trying to shove her door open enough for her to squeeze out. I ran out of my car and got to her car, grabbed the doors with gloves on my hands and was able to open the door wide enough to get her out

Just then, her right rear side broke into flames and she started screaming in my ear that her baby was in the back seat and strapped into her car seat. She tried to get back into the car through the front door, but that wasn’t going to work. I tried to open the back door, but it would only open a few inches. Meanwhile, this woman is going berserk by yelling and screaming and crying. Luckily, a female Trooper also responded so I asked her to take care of the woman while I tried to get the door open, which just wasn’t budging. The only thing I knew to do was to get the one fireman to grab his jaws of life and tear open the door. I wasn’t crazy about busting out the window with the baby right next to it.

Together, we were able to use the tool to open the door and get the baby out. I sent the baby and the woman to the hospital because it appeared to me that the baby was having respiratory problems, which was probably from the smoke. We had to transport 3 others to the hospital, including the bus driver. Thankfully, no one died. The WB side of the Turnpike was shut down for 4 1/2 hours for the accident recreation specialist could take pictures and make drawings.

This accident was the first time the state university used their helicopter services to fly crash victims to a hospital for treatment. The helicopter also had a Resident Doctor and nurse onboard.
 

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