Have you ever saved a life?

[WhereForArtThouBray]

I have managed to save 3 lives, just wondering how common it is?

1st was on my way home from work and I have to cross over a high bridge, there was a young man contemplating jumping off. He was surprisingly calm. I called the police and stayed with him until help arrived. I still think of him and hope he is in a better place mentally.

Second my next door neighbour had a fall, I was knocking and he wouldn't answer, kept shouting that he was fine. Turns out he had been naked on the kitchen floor all night. I had to get the fire service to break in his door. He was on hospital for 5 months!

Third was a lady in the hairdressers being really aggressive and rude. When she left the girls were saying how unlike her it was and how lovely she is usually. I followed her out as she was getting into her car to drive home and asked if she was diabetic. Turns out she was and was hypo, 1.6 which is very low. If she had driven that car she would have likely crashed.

So have any of you saved a life?

Yes, a little boy in the pool at Centreparcs.

Possibly. I convinced my dd's nursery (not in UK) that they needed to be cutting up grapes.

I also stopped my dc1 from a) choking and b) being strangled by a blind cord (at a friend's houe, both when he was around 18 months.

When my daughter was 18 months she choked on a piece of sausage. She went red and silent and looked at me with an awful look. I quickly picked her out of her high chair, put her across my knee and firmly slapped her on the back. I remember the paediatric first aid trainer telling us not to be afraid to give your child a decent whack to dislodge the blockage. The sausage flew out. She burst into tears but soon carried on eating lunch.

I’m so glad that I did that course, I never realised until then that it’s not choking unless they are deathly silent and I am so glad I was watching her eat and not washing up or something.

Dh saved my life, called an ambulance for me after I told him not to. He hadn’t told me he had done it because he knew I’d have gotten in a flap, as I don’t like to worry anyone. I had a really bad asthma attack. I remember laying on the floor unable to breathe, thinking fuck I need an ambulance right now, as he was opening the door to a paramedic.

In a hotel in Lisbon with my mum and we noticed a lone woman next to us swilling champagne and chugging a great deal of pills (and also being very rude to the waiter). I went to reception and alerted them to the potential suicide and an ambulance arrived just as she passed out. We got to finish the champagne...

Yes. I work in MH.

When I was 15 had a Saturday job in a shop, a man collapsed & I did cpr & phoned an ambulance. In the time it took the ambulance to come not one person that came in to the shop stopped to help or even stayed with me (I was very clearly a young looking teenager & was on my own in the shop)
By some massive stroke of luck we had recently done a first aid class at school so I had some idea basic of what to do.
The mans son came in to the shop a couple of weeks later to tell me he was ok.

I had to put toddler DD over my need slap her on the back once. She had a small piece of foil from a juice carton in her mouth, goodness knows why it was on the floor. It makes me go cold thinking what would have happened if I hadn’t noticed.

And I genuinely think DH saved me from at least injury. We were in a car park and someone started reversing out and just kept on coming towards us really quickly. I’m disabled and couldn’t get out of the way. DH picked me up and physically hauled me to safety. I was quite moved to be honest; my panicked instinct was to get out off the way of the car, I wasn’t even thinking about DH. But he thought about me.

At around 17 my mum sent me over to the shop two mins away for some cigs and a loaf. On the way back I saw a young boy, around four years old, running down the street in just underwear straight into the main road where cars were coming down either side at about 40. I dived into the road, picked the child up and threw him onto the pavement all in the space of about three seconds. Not sure how though because I'm a right fat sloth. Car didn't hit me it breaker in time. Child was alright. The lady who almost hit us stopped her car and we got the child sat in her car whilst we rang the police. Turned out he was actually around 6 with special needs and his family were well known by social services and he was always going missing. Broke my heart.
Went home in floods of tears for my mum to say "yeah I thought you were a while, I'm gasping for a fag"

Also not sure if this counts but when my poor sister was recovering from an operation at age 18, she was hit with sepsis. She was dying. Whilst she was recovering she would not eat at all. They had a food doctor (can't remember if they're called nutritionists or dieticians haha) come down to the ward to see if they could make her eat. She was being a real stubborn cow. In the end I remember sitting in the day room in a cancer ward with my parents, a doctor, and a couple of nurses literally having a meeting about how she needs to eat because it had been about eight days at this point. I said "I have an idea" and sent my dad off to McDonalds to bring back a chicken select meal, and voila- appetite reinstated! She recovered in no time thank god.

A few years back I was exiting a club with the girls after a night out, at one instant I spotted an elderly man who was obviously inebriated. Our eyes met and locked for a few seconds and I knew he was trying to avoid my stare but for some reason he couldn't. I then gave him a slight nod with my head and carried on home with my friends, and since then I've always had the feeling that man was going to commit suicide just that night, of course I don't know for sure, but I think he was put off by my stare and decided not to do it because he felt understood or something. Anyways nothing too exciting just wanted to share lol

My friend was on the phone and her toddler started choking. I yelled at my friend and she grabbed her dd and got the plastic straw wrapper out of her mouth (I was holding my dd at the time).

Another time a 2yr old child choked on some crisps at a party, she had gone this colour —-> , the Dad was just sitting there, frozen. I grabbed her and did back slaps until it came out. Dad didn’t move the entire time.

Not sure if I saved a life either time but I am glad I was there.

Oh and I give blood.

I haven't. I black out at the first sight of blood so am never any help. My sister gave CPR to a man having a heart attack though

Yes but I’m a nurse too.

There have been some outside of work though, the night before my wedding in the hotel venue a guy sat behind me didn’t look too well and his wife looked really worried l, I went over to see them as some of the venue staff were on the phone to NHS 24 and when I got there it looked like he’d had a stroke.

The NHS 24 call handler was really rude actually, talking over me, telling me just answer the questions even though that’s exactly what I was doing then proceeded to say we’d get a call back within four hours and just to wait.

I said then that the man was clearly FAST positive, he was deteriorating as I sat that and he needed an ambulance ASAP, the venue was about 40 minutes from the nearest A&E. She sent out a one man car which took around 20 minutes and as soon as he walked in he radioed for an ambulance crew, was really shocked that they had sent him out instead.

His wife called the next day to ask the wedding coordinator to pass on her thanks and I heard later he’d had a brain haemorrhage, I think about him every so often and hope he’s doing okay.

I haven't, but I truly commend all who have.

At 17 I was driving home on our local country roads.

Had only passed my driving test a few weeks previously. This was before mobile phones were commonplace.

Came across a young boy who'd lost control of his moped lying in the middle of the road.

Terrible hand injuries (wasn't wearing gloves) and bleeding badly from an obviously broken leg.

In retrospect I'm amazed by how I reacted at such a young age. I'd done a first aid course but I don't think anything really prepares you for something like that.

I remember putting the hazard lights on what was my DM's car and grabbing the first aid kit and being most afraid of someone crashing into us by driving recklessly on the road.

Checked he was breathing and put compression on his leg wound to try and stem the bleeding. Remember feeling torn about leaving to get help or staying and hoping someone else would arrive.

Felt like an hour but was only 5 mins before another car arrived and as luck would have it it was an off duty paramedic.

They stayed with the boy and I drove to the nearest property and asked them to call 999.

Drove back to the accident and assisted the off duty paramedic until the ambulance arrived. Then spoke to the police who'd also arrived and had to do a statement the next day.

The off duty paramedic said I'd saved the boys life by my actions - specifically pressure on his bleeding.

Drove home, covered in blood. My DF/DM were beside themselves when they saw me and didn't believe it wasn't my blood until I'd washed myself off. I think they were more traumatised than me at the time.

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a park with 4yo dd when I noticed a toddler walking straight towards the main road (busy, no fence). I looked around and no one seemed to be coming so i told dd to stay on the bench and started walking over to him but had to run in the end as we was pretty quick. I grabbed him as he was stepping off the curb into traffic. Still no parent and he couldn't talk to answer me where mummy and daddy were. Another minute went by and finally the mum came running. They'd been sitting 20 meters away with another family and hadn't noticed him wandering off. She was mortified and I'm pretty sure i stopped him from being hit by a car, if not killed. Really freaked me out as there was no one else but me there to help him. Hugged dd pretty tightly after that!

Yes, I'm a midwife. So many mums and babies have been saved as a result of mine and my team's actions😊

By not killing them does that count?
love that respons

I took a baby and hid it to stop it being murdered by her mum till the police came and stopped psychotic mum on a murdering spree. Didn't think that we would survive at the time though. I have never seen a terrified baby cry in absolute silence before and I never hope to see it again.

I also stopped someone from jumping off a building twice (same person, her doctor didn't take it seriously first time )

Apart from donating blood just one. Came across her in a park barely breathing having had an overdose. I was aware of who it was (she's notorious in our town) and my first aid given reflected that (I didn't want a needle injury or to have anything transmitted to me) so I feel a bit guilty I didn't do more but I kept her alive with the help of her addict friends until the first responder arrived (her friends then immediately left). She continues cause many problems in the town but I'm glad she's still alive and maybe one day she'll get the help she desperately needs and refuses.

@cranstonmanor that is chilling. Well done you.

Some years ago we were walking along a sea front and passed a man at an ice cream kiosk who was waiting to be served and he had a baby buggy beside him. I remembered it because we had to walk around it to get past. We walked on for about 50 yards downhill when the buggy rolled past us and was picking up speed.
I ran after it and grabbed the handle just before a bend in the path which would've sent it into the busy road.
The father was eating his ice cream, oblivious to what had happened - and to the fact that the buggy was no longer there - until he did a double take when he saw me pushing it up the hill. There was a baby of around 6 months in it.

I had to call an ambulance for an XP who had a sudden and massive seizure. Not life threatening, but fucking terrifying all the same.

Found a man passed out near an alley at 11pm on my walk home from work. I thought he might have been drunk or something, because he smelled of beer, but as it was -1 degrees that night I didn't want to leave him to sober up.

So I tried to wake him. I couldn't, so I called an ambulance. I knocked up a couple from the nearest house to help, they brought out blankets because we were told not to move him. Ambulance arrived, he got taken to hospital.

I'd left my contact details with the paramedic. His wife called me a few days later to thank me, turns out he only lived a couple of roads away from me. Apparently he suffered from fits, had had one and knocked himself unconscious on his way home from a night out. If I hadn't found him he probably would have frozen to death. Who said working the late shift was all bad?!

Stopped my car once to catch a toddler who as speeding out of a garden down a bank on a trike into the road...
The dps didn't even thank me!!

I saved a drowning woman in the sea.
A man who was choking.
A young woman who was about to jump off a bridge.

They seem to find me, or me them.