Based on the fatal accident thread...ever seen someone's life saved?

[Aurora63]

I know at least I need to read something uplifting after reading that thread...no offense to that OP or posters, it just made me sad to read those posts.

I haven't, myself, seen anyone's life saved.

 

[hucifer]

Yes, it felt so strange to watch it, like it was happening in slow motion.


Many years ago I was eating lunch in the cafeteria at work. A women a table over started to choke. The man next to her stood her up and performed the Heimlich maneuver on her. She was able to clear the food from her windpipe.

After lunch, I found the man back at work. I didn't know him from Boo, but I approached him and told him he did a wonderful thing. He seemed shocked that someone would tell him that, especially from someone he didn't know. Felt it was the least I could do...to honor something heroic like that.

 

[Robinrs]

My best friend in college choked on a large square cough drop while laughing. We were outside on a sidewalk and thought she was kidding. I had seen the Heimlich maneuver demonstrated that weekend on Wonderama, a kid's show my niece was watching. I remembered they said if the person couldn't speak or turned colors, they were serious.

Well, Brenda couldn't speak and she began to turn a strange color. It was then I remembered how they said if the person was larger than you, which most people were to me back then, to lay that person on her back and push up under the diaphram. I threw her on the ground (everyone was shocked) and performed the procedure. The cough drop literally flew up and out of her mouth. She started coughing and the college security collected her up off of the ground and took her to the Science center.

She was later Xrayed and told that the drop was so lodged in her throat it left lesions when it came out! I will never forget how the doctor hugged me and told me I saved her life!

That was in 1976. Brenda and I are STILL friends. The look on her face whenever we see each other is one of devotion. Her daughter, who attends college here in Atlanta (they live in NC) thanks me regularly for saving her Mom's life!!

I know now that nothing is a coincedence and it was meant for me to see that show. I learned a very little known procedure, one no one I knew had even ever heard of and I just so happened to see it on a kid's program. This procedure kept my best friend alive and I thank God for that.

 

[hucifer]

My best friend in college choked on a large square cough drop while laughing. We were outside on a sidewalk and thought she was kidding. I had seen the Heimlich maneuver demonstrated that weekend on Wonderama, a kid's show my niece was watching. I remembered they said if the person couldn't speak or turned colors, they were serious.

Well, Brenda couldn't speak and she began to turn a strange color. It was then I remembered how they said if the person was larger than you, which most people were to me back then, to lay that person on her back and push up under the diaphram. I threw her on the ground (everyone was shocked) and performed the procedure. The cough drop literally flew up and out of her mouth. She started coughing and the college security collected her up off of the ground and took her to the Science center.

She was later Xrayed and told that the drop was so lodged in her throat it left lesions when it came out! I will never forget how the doctor hugged me and told me I saved her life!

That was in 1976. Brenda and I are STILL friends. The look on her face whenever we see each other is one of devotion. Her daughter, who attends college here in Atlanta (they live in NC) thanks me regularly for saving her Mom's life!!

I know now that nothing is a coincedence and it was meant for me to see that show. I learned a very little known procedure, one no one I knew had even ever heard of and I just so happened to see it on a kid's program. This procedure kept my best friend alive and I thank God for that.

What a great post! You inspired me.

 

[sleepyone]

When dh and I were newly married, a neighbor who spoke Spanish was banging on our door. She was speaking so fast, the only words I understood were "nino" and "dulce". Then she went into her apartment and came out with her son. My Dh came out to see what was the matter. We realized he was choking and while dh did the heimlich, I called 911. The fire department was very close and they were the first responder and had arrived just after the candy flew out.

It all happened so fast but, seemed to be in slow motion.

 

[nliedel]

I performed the Heimlich on a child I was babysitting once. She had swallowed a small toy left on the floor. I will never forget it. I still shake and it's been over twenty years.

 

[SpecialK]

My dad administered CPR to my best friends' dad. The dr. said they would have lost him if it hadn't been for the CPR. Funny thing was, when their dad's attack started, one sister ran out the front door to our house and one ran to the phone to call our house. It alway made me proud that that was how they thought of my dad.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Yep at the Magic Kingdom when I was a CM. It was my first date with a guy that later became my fiance'. We were sitting upstairs at Pinocchios for an early lunch when the teen boys at the table next to us started making alot of noise. One of the guys was choking on something and his friends were screaming but didnt know what to do. My date jumped up and gave the kid the heimlich maneuver and saved the kid's life.

What a first date!

 

[Kim in TN]

I don't really know if I would say I truly saved someome life, I would like to think that someone would have jumped in to help
but here's the story. I was about 14 years old vacationing with My Great Aunt and Uncle. I had been swimming in the indoor pool and I was drying off to leave when a boy around 9 years or so came in with his Mother, both were deaf and the boy took off with Mother yelling the whole way, then he jumped in the pool, he couldn't swim and was drowning, him mother was screaming and yelling but only stood there as did my Aunt, I jumped in, he was completely under water and got him to the edge (he was bigger than me), some guys pulled him out of the pool and he was vomitting water. I remember thinking how shocked I was that I was able to help and that in everyone else's shock no one else jumped in. His Mother was very grateful.

 

[Megster]

I'm a lifeguard and have had to pull a number of small children out of water that is over their head. Luckily for me its the kids have always been in the active drowning stage (still moving around and gasping for breath). I guess that is technically saving a life; I have never had to perform CPR or anything like that though.

 

[We4mickey]

My DS choked on a piece of candy when he was about 5 or 6. Thank God I took those CPR classes and they taught the heimlich. I have never been so scared. I did it and when the candy came out I just sat down and cried. Something I will never forget.

 

[mannasn]

Great thread to remind us all about the importance of learning CPR (and refreshing our memories occasionally) and community first responders!

I have seen quite a few "lives saved," but only in a controlled setting (hospital).

 

[Beth76]

When I worked in childcare (with infants) I was standing right next to this girl (about 12 months old) who was climbing on a slide. My back was turned to her when I heard a thud and a scream. I turned around and she was on the floor. When I picked her up to comfort her, she threw herself back (like a tantrum) and got all stiff. Then I turned her over and looked at her and just said outloud "something's not right". I don't even remember what it was exactly that made me say that. Then another teacher said, "She's not breathing." And yet another teacher yelled, "turn her over!" By this time someone else was on the phone calling 911 and I turned her over and kind of slapped her back and she started breathing again. The ambulance still came and took her to the hospital and she was fine. What happened was a few weeks prior, she had fallen off her changing table at home and had a seizure (caused by the fall). This was the same type of thing I guess.

 

[Blondy876]

I've never had to do CPR or the Heimlich maneuver but I guess I sort of saved a child's life a couple of years ago. My dh and I had taken our dd to a local park to see Santa. There was another little girl around 2 walking around while the parents talked. My dh and I were watching and she kept getting closer and closer to the road but her parents didn't notice. We yelled and they ignored/didn't hear us as she got right to the edge of the road surface. There were Christmas decorations on the other side of the road and I could just tell that she was about to run across to them. I had headed towards her before she started running and when I was about 2 yards away she took off into the middle of the street right in front of an oncoming car. I didn't even think about the fact that I could have been killed I just ran and grabbed her. The car hit the breaks and came to a stop just about where the little girl and I had been. I felt so bad for the driver, he was white as a ghost. The parents snatched her from me and hugged her and hugged me and thanked me. I don't think the impact of what could have happened hit until I got home. I just sat down and burst into tears.

 

[Cindyluwho]

I was able to help save a woman's life about 10 years ago outside of Soda Springs Idaho. My DH & I had stopped at an abandoned barn, now get this, to steal a peice of the wood that had fallen on the ground. I wanted it to make a "gone fishin" sign. As I was picking up the board a little Toyota went by and I looked up, afraid that it was the owner of the barn. Right!! Out in the middle of freakin' nowhere! But anyway, I watched the car go by and just then a tanker truck pulled out of a sideroad and broadsided the little Toyota. And then it was just bizarre, slow motion - we ran to the accident, pulled open her door. Our cell phone didn't get reception out there so my DH headed back to Soda Springs for help. She was so badly hurt. Another car stopped and the other lady & I cleared her teeth out of her throat, thank goodness she was unconcious. Then we just held her hand and waited for the paramedics to come. She was barely breathing and I was so scared, it seemed to be taking forever for help to get there. A patrolman came up, it must have been his first accident scene, I swear he looked all of 15 years old. He just stood there - I told him he had to do something, she was dying and then he started to cry. When the helicopter came it had only been about 17 minutes, I thought it had been at least an hour. Months later I was able to speak to the woman, she got my number from the police department. She'd been in a coma for 8 weeks, I think and had lost all of her teeth, one eye but she was laughing and said she'd lost an amazing amount of weight. She had the best sense of humor, she was wonderful. I felt blessed to talk to her. To this day I think of her and hope she is well.

 

[christym]

When I was 10 we were vacationing at the beach (which we did every year) and we stayed at a campground. In the evenings, people would ride bicycles around the campground. Two people collided on their bicycles (and I still remember the sound... everyone thought two cars had collided). One guy had the actual spokes of his bicycle wheel through his leg and he was bleeding pretty badly. There was blood everywhere. My mom and I spent ten minutes or so waiting for paramedics to get into the park (It felt a lot longer but my mom says she noticed the times and it really was only ten minutes). We had to apply pressure to the guy's leg and he was going into shock. He turned incredibly pale, which was scary. I don't think I've ever seen anybody go so pale. As far as we know, the guy was ok (the people from his campsite came over and thanked us later that week).

And ten years later, I got paid back for my act of kindness when I was in a really bad car wreck (my car's engine was sitting in the front seat). I remember a man being at the side of my car, waiting with me for the paramedics. The odd thing is that none of the witnesses remember a man being there, so maybe he was my guardian angel. But I was incredibly thankful because he kept me calm so that my asthma didn't get to out of control (although the paramedics had me to the ER in five minutes in rush hour traffic - which should have taken about 20 minutes). I always wished I could find my stranger to say thanks.

 

[disneysteve]

I won't count hospital-based events since that's a controlled situation, but I've been involved in a few real-life episodes too. Once, at summer camp, I successfully did the Heimlich on a friend who was choking. I guess I was about 17 or 18 at the time.

Another time, during med school, I was driving from Philadelphia to Harrisburg where I was spending a month on rotation. Somewhere along the PA Turnpike, I saw several cars stopped on the side of the road. One guy was on the ground and CPR was being performed. I pulled over and helped, including performing the CPR part of the time until the ambulance crew arrived and took over. I have no idea if the guy made it, though.

I've helped out at numerous accident scenes over the years though none where there were life-threatening injuries thankfully.

 

[debster812]

Former lifeguard here with probably about 15 rescues, but 2 were 'life savers'. One in the ocean, one in a pool, had to perform CPR on the ocean rescue. I was 19 years old, and could not sleep for about a week after. I got a Christmas card, and an 'anniversary' card from the gentleman (and his wife after he passed away) for years and years and years.

The pool was a diving board vs diver crash, and he was unconcious before he hit the water. I think my fellow lifeguard and I were in the water almost before he was. We got him on a backboard and out of the pool, and he regained conciousness in about 5 minutes.

 

[delilah]

I have personally participated in saving numerous lives over the years, from people involved in horrible traffic accidents to people with MI's to people choking and seizures. It depends on how dramatic one wants to get. Usually, saving a life in a hospital setting is a team effort, and everybody involved has a role to play. Every time I ran a code blue, and the patient survived to leave the hospital, I "saved a life", at least for a time. Some patients and families are more grateful than others. I have received embarrassingly effusive thanks and gifts from patients for whom I did nothing more than the chest compressions until the patient could be stabilized and taken to the cath lab, then surgery for an MI, to being ignored for spending hours at the bedside of a critically ill patient for months. One young mom thinks I saved her baby's life (and maybe, I had more than a little to do with doing so) because I pulled the strings necessary to get the baby seen NOW in the cardiology department of the Children's Hospital. The cardiologist told the mom that if the baby hadn't been seen that afternoon, he probably would have been dead by the next day. I am not the paramedic that dramatically swoops on the scene to save the day on the street, but the quiet family physician seeing dozens of patients a day in the office, trying to quickly make decisions that are in the best interest of my patients. We've had all kinds of problems present urgently in our office on an ordinary, quiet day.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Uh..sort of.

A few years ago, DH and I went to a local 4th of July Festival and we popped into a nearby Wendy's to partake of some of their cheap, cheesy, artery-clogging goodness. I snagged a table and waited for DH who was in line. A guy about 2 places ahead of DH passed out right there in the middle of Wendy's and somebody called 911. The paramedics arrived and woke the guy up and eventually forced him into an ambulance for his own good.

TOV