Has anyone ever saved anyone's life?

[cptartapp]

Just looking at old holiday photos in Rhodes and remembering when DH pulled a teenage girl unconscious from the sea there. The sea was incredibly rough and I've no doubt he saved her life.
My DF once upended me and with several backslaps stopped me choking on a boiled sweet as a child.
Has anyone ever saved a life and how did it make you feel?

@Pineappleandredcheese that really touched me. Well done you.

I was once out and about late at night in a very cold country when I saw a drunk man weaving his way along the street and heading perilously near to an open manhole. Ran over, stopped him, showed him the hole and guided him around it. He was most grateful. If he had fallen in and been unable to get out he would have died of hypothermia.

I've done CPR on someone collapsed in front of me in the street until the ambulance arrived. No idea if they survived long term or not, but the paramedic said quickly to me as they were leaving that I'd at least given him a chance. If no one had done CPR he would have been dead by the time they got there. So maybe I did.

Not sure if I saved his life, but I sat for an hour with a teenage boy who had taken an overdose at a train station. Someone else had phoned 999, but the situation had progressed, and no one else appeared to be giving the help that was now urgently required.

As an 11 year old, my dog had unusually wandered off when off lead on a bridle path. I found her with a man who was prostrate slurring/moaning on the side of the path in a ditch, he appeared unable to get up and was sort of rolling about. I didn’t talk to him because of ‘stranger danger’ I was a bit scared, so knocked on the door of the nearest house and a lady called an ambulance after walking over to where I’d found him. I remember her being very calm and kind to me and my dog ( mobile phones were for adults in those days). Interestingly my dog would not leave him alone which was unusual because she was usually glued to me.

The lady took over, told me not to worry and to go home. She let my Dad know after she worked out where I lived, that the man had been in a diabetic coma and had come out of it, I dimly remember he even saw my Dad when he came out of hospital but I was on a school residential trip.

Had the man not had an empty (?) paper bag from the bakery, I wouldn’t have seen heard/him but my Labrador was VERY interested in the bag and I think she had snaffled the contents before I found her and him. She was also licking his face and I was worried I’d be in trouble for her theft and licking someone as my Dad always said our dog should not be a nuisance to other people. Guess the bakery bag ultimately saved his life, that and the perpetual hunger of a labrador! I was so relieved my lovely girl didn’t get told off for her theft though.

That's not directly saving people's lives. You could say that you're saving lives by not speeding - even though you don't know if you'll actually run into someone if you break the rules, or if they'll die if you do.

That doesn't count.

Saving someone's life is taking direct action when a lack of intervention would have meant certain death.

When I was around 5 or 6 I saw my baby (toddler?) Cousin go head first into an outdoor spa. I jumped in and pulled him out by his feet.

I'm a midwife so as a team effort have saved lives. Although I did work for a while as a community midwife and spotted developing meningitis in a newborn, sent them into hospital where it was later diagnosed. Also identified developing pre eclampsia in one lady pregnant with twins and despite being told I was over reacting by my Matron, pushed for her to be transferred in an ambulance where, surprise, surprise, her bloods showed she was really poorly and her babies were delivered by C section within a couple of hours of her admission.

I love @Nevermay's posts! We are all life-savers (a few PPs excepted, perhaps), simply by being responsible members of society.

As a child, I pushed a smaller kid out of the way of an oncoming car. The driver told my parents he'd braked but would have hit her.
As an adult, spotted a girl of about 9 silently drowning in the pool - she just gently sank. I dived, pulled her out, turned her upside down and handed her to her parents, who had just appeared.
In both cases, the child's parents were furious with me for manhandling their daughters!

As a nurse I've contributed to a team effort many many times. There was one occasion however when my sole actions definitely saved a ladies life at that precise moment. She did die a week or so later but peacefully with her family by her side after signing a DNR consent and receiving palliation.

My child was choking on a strawberry when they were a baby and I had to do proper back slaps. The berry eventually came flying out but the colour on my baby's face was all weird and it was terrifying.

Also stupidly DH has choked twice. The first time I did back blows and got the food out but I feel that he may have been able to get it out himself. The second time it was a chewy sweet and I could tell from his face he knew be was in trouble. I have practiced back blows lots so I went ape on his back and managed to get the sweet out. We were both quite shaken. I just remember thinking "my husband can't be killed by a fucking sweet - what are the paramedics going to think?!" 😂

Me and my friend were going home after a night out and found a drunk laying in the gutter between the kerb and a car, one winter night. Called an ambulance, that could have saved him from hypothermia.

Yes. A roommate had a diabetic fit and was blue, choking on her own vomit. The sound woke me up, I put her in the recovery position which cleared her airways. I can’t really remember doing it as I just went into a bit of a shocked state. But had I not, she would have died.

Lots. 36 years as a hospital doctor, including eight years on the cardiac arrest team and ITU. Now enjoying my retirement!

My eldest daughter when she was choking on a baby biscuit, normal procedure didn't work so had to pull it from her throat.
Also several times my youngest daughter as she has nocturnal epilepsy.
I also rescued someone from a car crash outside my house before the car set on fire
And I gave cpr to a man in the street who'd collapsed until the ambulance arrived.

I'd imagine many people save lives on a daily Basis in the nhs.

I saved a woman from drowning in the sea in Menorca. She was going under - swam to her and turned her round and did my best “ life saving tow” learnt age 10! And towed her back to shore. She threw up and everyone came around her and I just walked away. Later that evening I saw her having had quite a few drinks in a local bar. She didn’t recognise me and I never said anything.

I can't be sure the person would have certainly died, they would if no one else came along so I guess so.

Friends toddler feel backwards off a bench with a sweet in her mouth and inhaled it. Upside down she went and I thumped her on the back as mum was in the loo. Same with ds and a coin, another ds and a cocktail sausage I was on the phone to 999 while dh was trying to get it out. I suddenly realised no ambulance would come in time so sat down, put him upside down face down over my bent knee and hit him so, so hard a few times. It flew out. Terrifying as I literally watching him suffocating. Dh has had multiple first aid training but his knowledge of first aid is honestly shockingly low. Terrifyingly incompetent actually.

Bad head on car crash at 60mph as a teen. I was in the back with another woman and she had hit her head on the door frame and put her teeth through her face, broke all her front teeth, split her face open and was chocking on her blood, lump on her literally over a inch protruding withinnseconds and in a total panic. I got her into the recovery position so the blood drained out. I just felt "she has kids and she is going die right here and now on my lap" she kept telling me she was going to die and i said not today i secretly thought she would. It was terrifying and I did everything on autopilot. I did not want her to die. What choice did I have? I never, ever want to be in those situations again as with each, death was literally right there. When I was driven home by the police all eight tyres had blown on both cars and the car we hit had its windowscreen in one piece on the road. I just though 'how the fuck did no one die?' I happened and was over in three seconds.

I've posted about this before because there is a slight woo element to the story (I won't go into that here) but I was the nosy neighbour who raised concerns about an elderly lady who lived near me and couldn't be contacted. The police broke in and found her close to death after a fall. She survived, got home and lived for another few years before passing away from age.

My dad, who we sadly lost last week, ran into a burning building and carried out a woman, he went back in for her husband and carried him out. Dad performed cpr and saved the lady, sadly he couldn't save her husband.

Yes, abdominal thrusts for choking. We were running out of time and it finally worked.
I felt weirdly calm although it was a loved one.

I once lent someone my inhaler when they were having an asthma attack.

My son's friend saved his life when they were 12. I am beyond grateful to her for what she did.

Once in a local swimming pool when a woman started to drown. The lifeguards did not notice.

My ex husband when he had a fit and stopped breathing. Morally the correct course but given what happened years later I do wonder why I did when I contemplate just how horrid he is to our children.

No. In fact I can think of four people where I have contributed to their deaths, 2 family and 2 at work (NHS).

Many.I worked for the NHS for nearly 40 yrs before I retired.I can't count the number of times I had to use the defibrillator on someone in cardiac arrest .
I also once grabbed a toddler who had got away from their parent and stopped them from running onto a busy road.That may or may not have saved their life.

Not a person: my dog.

I was walking through the woods heading down to the wooden bridge to cross the meandering river that my Springer Spaniel likes to jump into - normally it's fine but the weather this day was horrendous - very heavy rain and thunder swirling around - I had waterproof trousers, wellies and a Gortex jacket on. The river was higher than I'd ever seen it - my dog gets excited when she sees the river and rushed over to look at it and in an instant - plop! - she was in it and got swept away - it was an accident - she didn't jump in without thinking - she slipped. In less than a second she was pinned up against the vertical wall of the river bank that had been eroded by the river - somehow she managed to get her head trapped behind a thin tree root that had been exposed by the erosion - it came out of the bank and back in again - making a loop - she wouldn't have had the sense to try and duck under the roots to escape - we made eye contact and I could see she was terrified. I had enough time to think "ah f#ck!" - you don't really have a choice do you? I don't remember any time wasted thinking about what to do it was that quick. I threw my rucksack off but jumped in with all my clobber on at the point she had fallen in - and was swept down to where she was - I was surprised by the power of the water pinning me onto the river bank - for a moment I didn't think I was going to be able to push off such was the force on my chest - I was up to my neck - I untangled her and pushed off and we were carried downstream to a place where we could get out. She was fine as soon as we got out. I had to empty my wellies and walk 4 miles back home - sadly a £150 mp3 player in my pocket was ruined. Stoopid dog!