Has anyone ever saved your life? Or have you ever saved one?

[soccerdad72]

I suppose I saved 3 kids over a couple years while lifeguarding. Although two of them were in water shallow enough for me to stand in, so they didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time.

 

[manning]

I had cardiac arrest and crashed into a light post in a parking lot. It was way in the back and empty. Someone appeared and gave me CPR.

 

[QueenIsabella]

Back in my EMT days, I helped reverse cardiac arrest. A woman with a long family history of heart issues had her meds changed by her doctor, then went on vacation to our little lake. I had just taken a defibrillation course the daybefore, and there I was, slapping the pads on her while DH did compressions. The circumstances were in our favor--she was fairly young, healthy, it was a witnessed arrest, and we arrived quickly.

 

[2disneywego]

My DH saved my life. I had what I thought was the stomach flu. I'm in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet, when I passed out.

My DH ran in, moved me to the hallway, really small bathroom, no pulse, he calls 911 & does CPR until the paramedics arrive and restart my heart.

And, this may not "qualify" for this thread, but it sure counts in my book. I've died on the operating table twice and once in ICU for 4 minutes. So, yeah, I've definitely had my life saved a few times. No pulse is no pulse no matter who or what brings you back! I'm eternally grateful and give thanks every day.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Flipped our canoe & my buddy was trapped under water tangled in tree branches. I pulled him out. He may have gotten out on his own eventually, but I wasn't going to wait - he thanked me, so I'm guessing he was struggling.

Gave my daughter the heimlich in a restaurant. She was choking on ice cream (of all things).

 

[wilkeliza]

Oh I guess I might have saved someone's life when I was a CM. I forget that the whole thing happened sometimes. I was working at the Italy cart for Agent P and it was during food and wine. The woman was waiting in line for one of the shows at the American Garden theater and she just dropped hard. We heard it and rushed over. Of course the darn phone on the wall it Italy didn't work so I had to get my co-workers cellphone. Was putting pressure on the woman's head, trying desperately to listen to the dispatch after being switched over to the proper 911 (tip if you ever call 911 from a theme park tell them you need to be transferred to Reedy Creek because you are at DIsney world the response time goes to less then 5 minutes instead of up to 30 plus). I don't know 100% what happened. At one point the paramedics got her woken up (she had a pulse before just blacked out) and she mentioned she changed heart medications recently but didn't think to tell anyone in her group that. I know they took her to the hospital because she needed stitches for sure but not sure if her heart gave her any other troubles the rest of the day.

In the moment I felt super unprepared and as a CM had to get so nasty with other guests especially when you have people with 0 credentials telling you they are an ER nurse and doing stuff that the dispatcher is telling you not to do also telling people to stop calling 911 as we don't need orlando and your already on the phone with reedy creek. It felt like it was a lot longer then the couple minutes it was.

 

[design_mom]

I gave my toddler son the heimlich maneuver when he was choking on a piece of tomato. (Grandma gave it to him. She cut it up, but I didn't doublecheck it. Dumb move! Two pieces were still stuck together by the skin and he swallowed both at the same time.) Anyway, my sister was pregnant at the time and freaked out. During the whole thing, she kept screaming at her husband "Do something! Do something!" but I was already doing it. That same day, she signed both of them up for CPR/Heimlich lessons.)

The other time, I didn't save anybody's life because it didn't turn out to need saving, but I was prepared to. As soon as I got off the elevator at work, someone said "Do you know CPR?! Dave collapsed!" I was ready to do it, but I found a pulse... so I did not do CPR. We just made sure he was stable till the paramedics arrived. He had fainted, but was otherwise OK and came back to work the next day.

 

[Sabeking]

Saved someone and got saved!

When I was probably about 7, I jumped in the pool backwards to practice back stroke for swim team. It was near the diving boards so it was about 12 feet deep. When I jumped in my chin missed the water and hit the side of the pool. I was knocked out and one of the parents saw it and jumped in to pull me out. The really sad thing was probably 15 years later I found out that same man who saved me committed suicide in his car about a hundred yards from my house.

About 10 years ago my neighbor called me and said she was working in her yard and a swarm of bees had stung her. By the time I got over there she was on the kitchen floor gasping for air. I called 911 and she kept pointing to the cabinet. I saw a container with medicine and noticed an epipen. My daughter had one so I was familiar with it. So I stuck her with the it. The hospital said I probably saved her life.

 

[PlainJane]

I have no idea if my life was saved, but I was standing next to my husband in the kitchen when I lost my balance and started falling backwards onto our open dishwasher. He saw what was happening and grabbed me. I'm now very particular about sharp objects always facing down in the dishwasher.

 

[indimom]

Not me, but DH's brother did the Heimlich on him when he was about 10 and was choking on a cinnamon disc. DH was alone inside the house when it happened and his teen brother was in the yard and noticed what was going on through the sliding glass door to the dining room.

 

[Magpie]

Apparently I saved my husband's life... or at least, some portion of his anatomy. An outpatient procedure led to an infection, which he'd seen the doctor for and was on his second course of antibiotics, because the first lot hadn't kicked it. It'd been weeks since the operation.

One morning I woke up and realized he wasn't in bed. Went out to the living room and found him sitting there, moaning in pain. I told him he needed to go to the hospital, and he said, "No... I'm fine..."

So, I called a cab, stuffed him into the back of it, and told the cabbie to take him to the emergency room.

A couple hours later, a doctor calls me and says, "I'm so glad you got him in when you did! Another half hour, and I think he would have ruptured and gone septic. We've got him on intravenous antibiotics now, and he's been admitted."

My poor husband was hospitalized for almost two weeks, while they fought the infection. Every day I'd pack up the kids (infant and toddler) and we'd go sit on the bus for an hour in order to go and visit Daddy.

 

[OneOftheB's]

I was a lifeguard for several years while in college. I only had to save someone once, a little girl (3 or 4) jumped into the pool while mom was talking to someone. The water level was just over the girls head and she couldn't swim. I jumped in and grabbed her, and we sat on the steps for a few minutes until mom finished talking. It wasn't as big of a deal as it might sound; the pool was empty of other people, and the girl was super calm and actually bobbing to get back to the steps.

 

[DawnM]

My cousin pulled his neighbor out of a frozen lake she had fallen through while ice skating.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Not me, but where I used to work they had all the managers learn CPR. Not that long after the training, one of my friends (who was a manager) was driving to work when she saw a man jogging down the sidewalk and then he suddenly collapsed. She pulled her car over, jumped out and started doing CPR. Someone else called 911, and when the ambulance arrived they told her she might as well stop, the man was gone. She said "our trainer said we don't stop until told to by a doctor. You are not a doctor." She insisted on going with him in the ambulance and continuing CPR, and sure enough the doctors were able to bring him back and he made a full recovery (he'd had a heart attack). It turned out that he was the husband of one of my friends, and she was so grateful for the person who wasn't willing to give up.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I may have helped save a life once. I was relaxing in the steam room at my gym and I heard very heavy breathing. There was an elderly lady who was lying on her back and seemed to be snoring. I looked around at the other ladies in the steam room and one of them was in her own world and the other looked at me and shrugged. Another lady came, one left. Still, the elderly lady snored. I was concerned because it is not very safe to sleep in a steam room- especially when one is elderly. I suggested that we try to wake her up and another lady in the room agreed that it might be a good idea. We started talking to the lady, but she did not respond. We began gently tapping her. Still, she did not respond. I quickly left the room and contacted an employee. She came in and began shaking the woman who was still unresponsive. The employee called 911. She got several people to help her remove the lady from the steam room. Very soon paramedics arrived and began performing CPR. The EMTs asked everyone to leave the room.

I was very worried about the woman that night. The next day, the gym employee told me that they were able to revive the woman and they took her to a hospital, and that she was going to be okay. She had suffered heat stroke and had lost consciousness. It was good that they had gotten her out of the steam room when they did.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

When I was about 13, a lifeguard had to rescue me from the ocean because I got caught in a rip current. That day was busy for the lifeguards. They probably made a dozen rescues.