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Original poster

Who has saved your life?

136 replies

Nevermay · 09/08/2023 18:25

Apart from all the usual vaccinations, water companies, sanitation, NHS, etc that give us a safe, risk free life, when most of us would die before 50 without this... can anyone point to someone or something and say "they saved my life"?

OP posts:

ladeluge · 09/08/2023 20:15

My brother. I felt fine, he thought I was having a stroke, apparently I was white as a sheet and all over the place not making sense. He had just dropped in while passing.

So he drove me to the hospital. I was having a major internal bleed. Caught just in time. Thanks also to the blood donors who brought me back from the brink.

HaggisFace · 09/08/2023 20:18

A nurse in my 20s who pushed for ICU Consultant advice when the doctors wanted me kept on their ward. I had sepsis and would have died without that angel of a woman intervening and going against her colleagues orders.

TokyoSushi · 09/08/2023 20:19

A group of Mums at baby group, they didn't save my life exactly, but they did save me from sinking into very deep PND, and they don't even know it. 12 years ago now and forever grateful.

FatOaf · 09/08/2023 20:20

The girl who dived and rescued me when I went in the wrong pool on our first visit to the swimming baths from school (1970, aged 7). We'll forget about the lack of supervision and the fact nobody ever told my parents...

devildeepbluesea · 09/08/2023 20:21

The consultant who kicked ass when he realised I’d been labouring away with precisely no progression for 12 hours.

BTW, Cliff Richard rescued a family friend from a swimming pool in Mallorca in the 60s. Not me, but quite interesting.

WhyCantPeopleBeNice · 09/08/2023 20:22

Every single person who helped me leave the father of my children
I don't think it was one individual specifically but any and everyone who worked to get me away from him, kept me from going back and simply stayed without judging saved my life and that of my daughter

Ohmylovejune · 09/08/2023 20:24

Husband when I was choking.

I couldn't breathe and literally saw my life go before me. I slapped me, twice, and then did the heindlich manoeuvre.

Frightening but I had literally no control and I knew it

mealdealsmoothie · 09/08/2023 20:24

People at my church, most of whom probably don't know they changed my life. To them it has probably been simply building relationship with me, listening to me, laughing with me. But I don't know where I would be now without them.

My mum when I was about 13. We were on holiday and my younger brother and I were in the pool. My brother was sitting on an inflatable dolphin but fell off in the deep end. He panicked and I was nearby so he grabbed on to me in the pool. I then ended up going under the water with him because of his weight pulling me down and his panic. I fought but couldn't right myself above the surface again. Our mum jumped in (without first taking off a very expensive watch that had been a gift from her parents) and managed to get hold of us and lift us out of the water. We potentially would have drowned without her.

Nanna50 · 09/08/2023 20:25

A psychologist over 30 years ago. Told me if I committed suicide my child would never get over it and that is why some mothers kill their children when they kill themselves. Harsh but scary enough to make me engage with the therapy that saved my life.

LadyWithLapdog · 09/08/2023 20:26

This reminded me that my dad also saved me when I was choking; we were on a plane.

3isthemagicnumberrr · 09/08/2023 20:27

A psychologist on the neonatal unit. I used to think about how to end my life a lot, and she is without a doubt the reason I am still here. I saw her weekly for months and then after dd died, she offered to meet me again even though it wasn’t her role.

Cocolapew · 09/08/2023 20:29

When I was 7 or 8 I followed my brother and his friend into some woods, I fell in the river and sailed off downstream. My coat had puffed up and kept me buoyant, but I had wellies on and was slowly being dragged under. They ran ahead of me and dragged me out.
Interesting thread 🙂

bagforlifeamnesty · 09/08/2023 20:29

I choked on a marble when I was three and my brother who was six at the time hit me on the back until it came out. My mum was in the next room and she didn’t hear us until it had come out so if it hadn’t worked then I probably would have stopped breathing before she came in.

As a side note this is why I’m very safety conscious around toys like marble runs or anything with small parts or batteries or magnets, lots of people buy stuff like that for older children without considering the younger siblings and many of my friends with two+ kids are quite blasé about the risks of littler one’s getting hold of older ones toys especially once they’re past the obvious baby stage of putting everything in their mouths. But I specifically remember putting the marble in my mouth and liking the way it felt and pretending it was a sweetie. I wasn’t a tiny baby eating handfuls of anything but it’s easy to forget that 3 year olds still have no real concept of danger.

caramacyears · 09/08/2023 20:32

Oh my irreplaceable mum, the NHS several times, my cognitive therapist years ago, and a victim counsellor to name but a few.

Giantwindows · 09/08/2023 20:34

My Mum’s cousin saved me from drowning in a rip current just before the rescue helicopters arrived. I was young at the time and it was only with hindsight that I realised how close to death I was and how amazing his rescue was.

Holliegee · 09/08/2023 20:36

My best friend who sadly passed away did twice, once when my mum died when I was 11 and she sat with me every day in matrons office then much later in life realising I was in a DV relationship she helped me break free.

KohlaParasaurus · 09/08/2023 20:38

The multitude of medical practitioners from the past who developed all the components needed to perform a caesarean section safely - surgery, anaesthesia, wound closure technology, infection control. And the obstetric/midwifery team who decided that my mother's labour had gone on quite long enough. We would both have died back in the good old days when legend has it that women just popped behind a bush, coughed out the baby, and went straight back to tending the vegetable patch.

Kittensat36 · 09/08/2023 20:40

An ex of mine. I was in a very deep depression over an unrequited love I had for one of my friends - to the point where I was considering doing something silly. I was out with my ex one evening when I was struck by the thunderbolt. And so was he. I credit him with saving my life.

He broke my heart later, but that pain was nothing in comparison.

Moonshine5 · 09/08/2023 20:40

Without sounding dramatic I feel like I have been saved many times over. 2 that currently spring to mind.
A surgeon removed a nut that had gone up my nasal passage I would have been around 18 months old. My parents had taken me to hospital as I had been crying relentlessly.
The (volunteer) helicopter landed @ Hard Knott Pass in the Lake District I was number 96 saved that year.

GarlicGrace · 09/08/2023 20:43

The nurses who revived me when I 'died' in surgical recovery.
The GP, psychiatrist & psychologists who stopped me committing suicide.
My mother who, several times, stood up against my father when he ordered me to do life-threatening things (that would have been recorded as accidents).

Andthereyougo · 09/08/2023 20:43

My dog when I was a teenager, living in one room in an empty house. Woke up middle of the night as my dog ( rescue mongrel) was sat on my face. Then started coughing, couldn’t breathe, managed to throw the window open, smoke billowed out. Room heater had malfunctioned and was chucking out black smoke, the next morning I could see everything was covered in a black sooty film. Dog and I got out ok.

Eastofe · 09/08/2023 20:47

I was in an accident as a child and ended up in the road, the teenage boy who ran out, picked me up and carried me to the pavement saved my life as an HGV went right through where I had been laying and would most likely not have been able to stop in time.
I don't remember much about it as I was very young but I remember he was wearing a school uniform and gave me a thumbs up before he left. I never knew his name but I'm very very thankful for him.

UTImisery · 09/08/2023 20:48

Three men pulled me out from under a bouncy castle age 6 or 7. I was trapped in between two layers, there was a rip and kids were bouncing on top of me. I only vaguely remember it now, but still can’t go near bouncy castles or anything inflatable like that. Can’t stand them, they absolutely terrify me.

SleepingStandingUp · 09/08/2023 20:49

I don't know if I would have died or just been very poorly, but potentially my friend when she saw I'd taken an overdose and dragged me to hospital. I also saved her life when I managed to get an ambulance to her when she took an overdose hundreds of miles away and text me to tell me.

If my new born baby had died, I'm not sure I wouldn't be with him, so the surgeon (and all nurses, docs etc) who kept him alive.

MuchTooTired · 09/08/2023 20:53

My dad saved my life with his insistence we have a monitored home alarm. I had the gas fire on and was home alone for the week, the alarm goes mental claiming there’s a fire and the fire brigade comes out before I could call and report it as a fault.

It turned out the chimney was blocked and the carbon monoxide set the alarm off and saved my life 20 years ago.

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