Share your thoughts in the answer section.

#1

Yes. My own. I hated myself for a long time but I got over it and in the end I didn't want to kill myself anymore.

#2

I've spent 2 years wearing a mask to protect the people around me, so yes I've saved quite a few!

#3

I've given blood 85 times now. Going for 100!

#4

Yes, my sons. I was driving down our highway in our local city. He stated to make this terrible sound. Turned around and saw he was choaking on something I tried to pat his chest while driving! We were stopping at a red light, i turned on my flashers and jumped out of the truck, got him out of his car seat and started to do the heimlich on him. All the cars started to go and thankfully a lady behind me stopped traffic for me and called an ambulance. I thought i was going to hurt my son on how hard i was hitting his back, i started to do the scoop method and that got him to throw up, it was a quarter in his throat!!!! The longest and scariest few mins of me entire life. The paramedics got there checked him out and he was fine! No scratches in his throat ( i thought i had hurt him). Learning the heimlich in CPR saved my sons life

#5

Twice... Once pulled an old guy out of an overturned van that then set itself on fire, and did CPR on my infant son to restart his heart and breathing after a seizure.

... zero stars. Do not recommend.

#6

Just the plain, ordinary being there for a friend when he's suicidal. But the great part about that is literally any of you can do the same to save a life.

#7

I was a K9 handler for Search and Rescue for 10 years. So... yes I have.

#8

Probably not the dramatic way you're expecting...but I saved a nice guy's life by marrying him. He worked at warehouses, doing hard work of loading & unloading trucks, these stingy employers offered part time work and no health benefits, it was taking months for his state health insurance application to process. Meantime, he's Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed age 12, rationing his food and insulin (that his mom bought in Mexico twice a year, she's not Mexican, but travelled there specifically for his meds because it's affordable there), rare doctor visits, getting A1C labs was a special annual treat.

So I started dating him, then I married him. I work in healthcare with good health insurance.

Now, he has regular doctor visits, lab work, all the insulin he needs, a glucose monitor, and an insulin pump. It took several years to get him used to new habits, like not rationing food or insulin, or that he can schedule to see a nutritionist to help plan a Type 1 diet, or that if he goes so hypogylcemic he's unconscious (it happens) I have a glucagon emergency injection ready for him and a trip to the E.D. if he needs it.

American Health System. Killing people, one at a time. Why should your health system be connected to your job?? Private monthly insurance with reasonable copays is $1500/month. He's never ever even made that much a month. He's unskilled labor, and there are jobs he can not actually do because he gets hypoglycemic so quickly. His glucose monitor starts beeping for urgent low blood sugar drops when he does chores, goes for walks, does manual labor at work. He's a perfectly good guy though.

#9

I foster cats and kittens that our group pulls from hi-kill shelters and help them find homes. So yeah, furry little someones.

#10

Yes my mums, she had a bad mental breakdown and locked herself in the bathroom with a bunch of pills (I still wonder where I found the strength to do this considering I’m disabled) but I shoulder barged that door, broke the lock and got to her before she could take the pills. That helped her to realise she was wanted and she’s doing great now

#11

In the UK most SCUBA instructors are unpaid volunteers and I’m one of them.
A few years ago I was assigned 2 students for a session doing the £10/$12 “Try Dive” thing (“Discover SCUBA” for the USA/PADI folk) in the local indoor pool. One of them wasn’t keen, the other was just a natural diver. The good diver wanted to come back the next week and do it again, 1:1, to have more time diving before committing to paying for club membership.
They didn’t turn up.
I asked to see their paperwork, got their phone number, and sent a message along the lines of “Hey, I missed you at the pool tonight! You did really well last week, best try-diver ever. Want to try again for next week?” and got a barrage of apologies and thanks back.
So I called them. We had a chat and a laugh about the antics of the other instructors, I told them about the other people they’d seen at the pool, places we dive, things we see, and agreed to try again the next week. Probably an hour on the phone before they said they were cold and needed to drive home.
A few weeks later they told me that they got my text message while walking across a bridge, and when I called, they were sat on the edge of the bridge ready to jump because nobody cared and they hated their life. Apparently I didn’t just save their life, I gave them a whole new one.
They ended up making a lot of good friends in the diving community, and they are doing ok now, back with family and a new career and still loving diving.

#12

My mother. She said she felt dizzy, had no energy and looked totally out of it. I wanted to take her to the ER but she said no and to wait until tomorrow. I knew she wasn't all right especially since she doesn't like waiting. Normally I'm the one that would say lets wait. Kept talking that we need to go now. Finally she said yes and I'm glad we did. She ended up being diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer. That was 3 years ago and now she is cancer free. I don't think she would have made if we would have waited. When they put her into the wheelchair it was like she came back to life and was herself again. But before that how she looked and sounded is something I never want to see or hear again. She's done so much for me. Now it's time for me to return the favor!

#13

Yes - but I had help. I was with a bunch of friends in a (relatively shallow) pool, and noticed some motion out of the corner of my eye. My friend's 6-year-old was frantically trying to get another friend's 4-year-old above water. I shouted something incoherent and launched myself over to where the kids were and heaved the little girl out of the water on to the pool deck. All ended well - she's now a normal, healthy, annoying teenager.

#14

I was 14. My sister and I were in a public swimming pool. As we were playing I noticed a dark shadow at the bottom of the pool. It was a little boy. I dived, brought him back to the side and then the lifeguards took him called an ambulance. They resuscitated him. He survived with no physical damage. Thank Goodness

I always wanted to write to the producer of Bay Watch or to David Hasselhoff. I knew what to do because of this show ?

#15

Maybe. Was a CIT (Counselor in Training) at a day camp for several weeks with a group of 4-5 year olds. Was in the outdoor swimming pool. At one point two of the small girls were in water that was deeper than they were--but easily shallow for me. I realized this and grabbed both back to shallow water. Keep in mind, I am not a great swimmer myself, was not a lifeguard, and not the strongest person. I think one of them got too far out and grabbed onto the second one for dear life, dragging her out with her. Both were fine, but one was clearly very scared afterwards.

#16

Well, not anyone else, but someone saved me!
I don't remember much of it because I was really small, but I was in a swimming pool and my parents weren't paying attention to me. I wasn't a very good swimmer at the time and was having trouble keeping my head above water, until I started to sink. I can't even describe the feeling of horror and fear that I felt when I realized I couldn't swim to the surface. When I started taking in water all of the sudden I had a feeling of peace come over me. A boy, about fourteen, maybe fifteen grabbed me and pulled me to shallow water. I got out of the water and looked around, but never found him. You can believe whatever you want, but I'm pretty sure he was my guardian angel. I can still feel him sometimes.

#17

I saved my husband from drowning before we were married. He’s not the best swimmer to begin with so when he got caught in a rip tide, he started flailing and freaking out. Fortunately, I’m a good swimmer and was able to get him out before he drowned.

#18

When I was a junior in college I was a bartender at a Mexican restaurant in the "downtown" of the small college town. It was the most popular spot for Monday night football, thirsty Thursdays and trashy hangover brunches. Bartending and serving can give you a sixth sense for sketchy behavior, and that place attracted it all. During everyone's favorite post-church lunch shift (tithing isn't tipping folks...), this wirey dude with manic eyes sat at the bar. He was probably my same age, or possibly younger, but age'd from hard living. He ordered off-menu, one of the best things we made, huevos rancheros and then proceeded to slide the food around his plate for an hour while watching the door. Everytime someone came in from outside he'd slide off his stool like he was going to bolt, but then he'd just sit back down and look at his food. After dropping some drinks off at a table I walk behind the bar and the dude was gone. His food was still there, and I figured he stiffed me for the food and a couple drinks, but I decided to leave his plate in case he came back. From the bar you could see the hallway with the bathroom, and I watched a little girl in a Sunday dress go back there twice, and both times the door was locked, but I hadn't seen anyone come or go in between, so I did my bartender duty and grabbed the bathroom key. I knocked and no one answered, so I unlocked the door and peaked inside.

The dude with manic eyes was laying face down on the floor, as though he'd fallen off the toilet, but his pants were up. I rolled him on his side and his face was the most terrible purple color I'd ever seen, his eyes fully open and completely bloodshot, tongue swollen and hanging out of his mouth. If it wasn't obvious, there was also a needle in his arm. I called out for help, grabbed some rubber gloves from under the sink, and swept my fingers in the dudes mouth and out popped the syringe cap. I checked for a pulse, but my untrained fingers couldn't find one, so I started CPR. Do you know what no one ever taught me in CPR class? How long it takes for an ambulance to arrive while doing CPR, and that you can't stop until they get there... People don't wake up after 10 pumps, spit out some water and thank you for saving their life. I have no idea how long it actually took, probably 10 minutes, but my arms were on fire and I was a sweaty mess (props to all you first responders who do it every day!) when they showed up.

EMS arrived, took over, loaded him up and zipped him over to the hospital. The manager tried to make a big deal about it and get me interviewed, but when no news outlets cared, he quickly forgot, and people their need margaritas, so I did too.

A few months later, it was mother's day weekend and graduation week. I was bartending and covering the indoor patio, "the greenhouse" and I sat a big family, all dressed up to celebrate their twins graduating from undergrad. I took the female twin's order and then turned to her brother, who ordered huevos rancheros, and I recognized the dude from the bathroom floor, though much healthier than the last time I saw him. He didn't recognize me at all, and as I walked back to the bar I realized that I'd just assumed he'd died. The thought of his sister sitting there alone, trying to celebrate her graduation a few months after her brother died made me tear up while I was putting their order in. I know that the actual healthcare workers had to do a lot more to save him after they took him away (this was pre-narcan), but I've always been grateful that I was able to be there for a stranger like that. I still think about him and wonder what he did with his life. I hope he and his sister are still close.

#19

Yes. But let me explain something 1st. I am not a proud person. But constantly logically thinking person as to why things happen so losing my son to sids f****d me up hard core.
That being said.... I saved a woman in a bathroom overdosed in Washington state usa. She was passed out with a needle stuck in her arm. She was damn near cold. I administer her narcan via nasal spray. Twice and started cpr. I stayed on her till helped arrived and they used a aed to restart her heart. I worked on this woman for 50 minutes and was taken over at the hospital we went to by a trauma nurse. They brought her back. She is now one of my closest friends.

#20

My husband (before I met him) came to the aid of a man who had been stabbed while travelling on a bus. Sitting a few seats ahead of my husband and the would-be victim, was the attacker who was being bothersome to other passengers .As the bus approached its scheduled stop, the attacker walked towards his target and stabbed him in the neck . My husband immediately grabbed the attacker's hand and forcibly removed the knife. He kept the struggling attacker in a headlock and walked him to the front of the bus while others helped care for the victim until the ambulance and police arrived. I’m so proud of him , he received a Medal of Bravery years later .

#21

I limit my carbon footprint by walking instead of driving, recycle and use cloth bags instead of plastic, wear a mask or two, educate my grandchildren, donate to local charities, help neighbors in need, landscape with drought-tolerant native plants, avoid pesticides and fungicides, love my wife and protect her, and generally stay out of harms way. So... yes. But I will never know their names, if that's what you wanted.

#22

Former ICU nurse here...a few yeses, a lot of almosts...

#23

Went white water rafting with my adult daughter and teenage granddaughter in Colorado. It was late in the season and we hit a boulder that nearly threw my daughter into the water. You'd think an inflatable raft would have some "give," but those things are hard as heck and when you hit a big rock it's a serious collision.

We managed to pull her back in, but a moment later she got thrown in, and then me. Even though we were on opposite sides of the raft we somehow ended up together in the water.

Her life jacket had been improperly adjusted and it was actually rising above her shoulders and pushing her head under water, which also prevented her from swimming. I grabbed her life jacket with one arm and started swimming with the other arm toward the opposite shore--there were sheer boulders on the side we were on, so that was not an option.

Even though the water was low, the force of it shot us downstream. My legs got raked across rocks and I could tell one knee got banged up badly. Another raft had pulled into shore and that's what I kept swimming toward. The guide in that boat stuck out a paddle and I grabbed it just as I was about to give out from exhaustion. I could not have made it much further. We dragged ourselves out of the water and were directed to a road where the tour bus would pick us up.

If nothing goes wrong, white water rafting is a lot of fun. You'll want to do it again immediately. But if you go in the water, you need to understand that you're swimming for your life. The force of that mass of moving water is like being pushed by a wall. There are no life guards and the guides aren't jumping in to save you because that would just mean more people in the water. You have to swim to shore or another raft.

Experienced guides with helmets and vests have themselves drowned after falling out. If you go, take it seriously. It is not an amusement ride.

#24

Years ago, my friend called me at work. She wasn't making much sense, kept saying things like, I want you to have a good life, etc. I knew she kept a 2-liter bottle of rum at all times, and I heard sounds like liquid being poured, and drinking and swallowing sounds. I was afraid she was taking pills of some kind and washing them down with rum.
I kept her on the phone until I was sure I was hearing right, then hung up and called a friend of ours who was a psychologist. Thank God he picked up the phone. He raced to her home and called 911. At the ED they pumped her stomach, and she was fine.
I talked to her and she wouldn't promise not to try it again. The doc wanted to release her to me, but I knew I couldn't handle her. I said no, she told me she would try it again. So they kept her for a few days and got her on the proper meds.
She was so mad at me, but so what? She was alive.

#25

I have, according to my wife, saved her life at least twice now. The first time was when she was stuck living out of a hallway in rural Texas and I helped her move up to Oregon to live with me. The second was when she came out as transgender and I was absolutely supportive and her best ally. She returned the favor and saved mine when she reciprocated my feelings and helped me remember that I am also transgender.

#26

I once helped a coworker who was choking while having lunch. He was much larger than I was ( I am 1.83 m/ 6ft) but I managed to relieve him after about thirty seconds. Probably the scariest ones in my life.

Another time I pulled I guy back when he was attempting to cross the road while a speeding bus was coming straight into him.

#27

Provided first aid after an car accident once, ran 2 kilometres through a pitch black night to a veterinary with my sister's cat (she got crushed by her scratching tree; no serious injuries) and I don't know if I saved my friend's life, but I think protecting her a few times from getting harrased and beaten up sure helped her a lot.

#28

My husband legit saved my life. We were at a surf camp out in Java deep in the jungle. I had contracted amoebic dysentery... I was violently ill and there were no medical services on the tiny beach we were at. He found a kid with a satellite phone (this was in 2005) and chartered a helicopter to fly use back to Bali to the medical clinic there. All the wonderful locals helped carry me to the helicopter because I was so weak, I couldn't walk. There was an ambulance waiting for me at the airport, and I needed 8 bags of IV fluids. The doctor told him had it not been for his actions, I would've died. As soon as I was stabilized, he burst into tears, he had been completely terrified that I was going to die.

#29

Without patting myself on my back too much, yes! I have spoken about this on BP before, but I have a Google Hangouts group for teens with mental health issues. And if not their lives, I've definitely saved a few people's sanity. And, I suppose, I've saved my own. Depression is NOT fun XD.

#30

Yes, not human, but hummingbird, when I was little, (like 10) I found a bird on the ground, (I don't remmeber the exact type but I think it was a hummingbird) it was exhaused or something because it wasn't flying at all. It was cold outside, and as I was worried for the little guy's health, so I got a box, filled it with some cloth and cotton balls so the hummingbird could stay warm scooped up the hummingbird. I left some seed in the box (idk how much that actually helped assuming my memory is correct and it was a hummingbird, Idk if they actually eat seed) I left the box half open and outside, so the hummingbird could fly out once he was ready. The next morning the hummingbird was gone, likely having recovered and flown out. For those of you curious on why I didn't bring him inside, we had a pet African Grey and were worried he might hurt the smaller one.

#31

I saved at least 2 of my friends lives before by being there for them. I don't think they realise they are doing the same for me..

#32

Its the other way around, someone saved my life. When i was in kindergarten, i went to a grandmas friends house to swim. I accidentally went too far and i didnt have floaties on, so i almost drowned. luckily, there was someone out there, and they saved me right as i was going down. I forget who that was and i wonder if they are doing ok.

#33

I didn’t even know I did until late but I saved my gf from killing herself by starting to date her

#34

not a person, but a humming bird :D

#35

I was at a party with my family at a friends house when I was a teenager. They had a pool and there were a bunch of people standing round talking and eating. I was sitting a good 20 feet from the pool and saw my 2 year old niece standing by the deep end with a group of adults. A few seconds later I looked up and didn’t see her, but the people who were standing near her were still just standing around. I glanced around and still couldn’t find her, so I ran over to the pool, jumped in and pulled her up from the bottom. Luckily she was fine and boy did the adults get an earful from me.

#36

Since my late teens (I'm 34 now) I have reversed overdoses in people at least 15 times. I received Narcan training and have brought several people back from the brink of death, either through CPR or a combination of that and Narcan. Most of those people have since gotten sober and are working hard today to overcome their addictions. Please folks, if you know anyone struggling with opioids, take the time to receive training and a free prescription of Narcan; it truly does save lives.

#37

I once saved a girl from drowning in a very crowded public wave pool. She thanked me a lot saying she just ran out of energy to keep her on the surface. nobody noticed except me.

#38

Actually... yeah. I was in my twenties in the late '70s and a couple of Mormon missionaries came to the door. I sent them on their way but they returned a few seconds later and started banging on the door. When I answered they said "Hey! the guy next door's trying to kill himself!!"

I ran out the back door and sure enough, there's my neighbor Joe hanging from a tree, not even swinging back and forth. I yelled "Godd*amnit, Joe" and hollered for my wife to grab the lopping shears before vaulting over the chainlink fence and grabbing his thighs to support some of his weight while my wife climbed up on the chair he'd used and cut through the rope with the shears.

He was really pissed off when he came to. I called the cops to come get him some help and there were some tense SWAT-like moments that afternoon (I'd told the cops the guy kept guns in the house), but at least the guy survived for whatever that was worth to him.

#39

Once when I worked in a group home for the developmentally disabled one of my clients jumped into the pool after telling me they could swim and went right under. I jumped in with all of my clothes and he was so big he almost held me underwater but I was able to push up from the bottom till he could grab onto the side and pulled himself up thank God! Also at a different group home I heard one of our girls coughing over the monitor. Nobody else thought anything of it but when I checked on her she was choking on her own vomit. She was blind and deaf and didn't speak much but she was so grateful when I helped her she just said thank you thank you thank you over and over again. I helped someone else from drowning after this but my experiences at the group home for the ones that meant the most to me. It made my job worthwhile and I came home feeling good about myself for once.

#40

Summer 2001, my two sisters were visiting our father in Guam from Alaska. A typhoon hit and killed the power, destroyed water lines, and generally made life miserable in 100 F weather.

I was trying to sleep on the cool tiles in the living room one night, since there was no power in the apartment complex. Around 4am heard a loud bang and angry voices in the stairwell outside, then another bang a minute later. I look through the peephole and see a man crawling down the stairs headfirst, and he comes to our door and bangs on it saying "Help, I'm shot!"

I run to my Dad, but he went to just boyfriends without telling us. I woke my sisters and put one of them on the phone with the police, and the other hidden in the closet. Then, I opened the door and kept the man with gunshot wound in his chest awake and talking until the police arrived.

We did an interview with the News station, but still had no electricity to see it. Visited the man in the hospital. He survived, but the bullet hit his lung, liver, stomach, and impeded itself in his spine paralyzing him.

I found out later, the shooter was a crazy ex-military who had left a note under the door of the guy who was moving in across his hallway. The note was about a water hose I had left out in the shared courtyard. The new guy had just gotten home and decided to confront the military guy because he didn't own a hose. Military guy shot him and then committed suicide.

Stairwell smelled like blood for months.

#41

Aged about 14, I was going on a historic steam excursion. They were vintage carriages, so there was a bit of a gap between the platform and carridge. As we boarded, there was a little kid of about 4 years old in front of me. They slipped and started to fall down the gap. This station had 3rd rail electrification. Somehow, I grabbed the back of their coat and held them until some other passengers could help me pull them back up. To this day, I have never reacted so fast to anything else again.

#42

Father, mother, and I took a lawn tractor w/an attached trailer into the woods to dig plants for landscaping. On the way back out father was driving w/mother & myself between tractor/trailer standing on hitch and trailer tongue going up a slope. The tractor failed and began to roll backwards. I managed to jump free, reach out and grab mother to pull her to safety just as the tractor began to roll over going down hill. We watched as father barely managed to get out of the way. Could have lost both parents that day; luckily, aside from a wrecked tractor, the only damage was a large bruise where mother had grabbed onto my wrist.

#43

Multiple times. First I can remember in college my roommate would only wear black clothes. We were down at the bus station one night (open air station but poorly lit) and we were about to cross the street. She was ahead of me and I noticed a huge bus turning on the red light. Neither of them noticed the other (she had headphones in). I ran and grabbed the hood, which was only thing I could reach, and yanked her back while trying to run. Her shoe fell off and was completely mangled by the truck tire. She freaked out when she realized what happened, but bus driver still never noticed anything because he just kept driving.

Next time still in college: I signed up for bone marrow registry after a blood drive. I'm mixed race, so those are harder to match for recipients because you need the same mix to be the donor. I get a letter that says I was a preliminary match. After almost a year of me going for various tests and appointments and more bloodwork after classes (without a car, so multiple bus rides), they said we were a perfect match. So I had surgery over Christmas break between semesters. You go in face up but they then intubate you and knock you out and all that, and then roll you onto your stomach for the extraction from your lower back (upper pelvis). During that process they dislocated my shoulder and tore tendons in the area. I ended up having to take the semester off because of it and still have pain and weakness in my left arm15 years later. The recipient was "cured" of his cancer they would tell me on follow up interviews (they interviewed me every 6 months for about ten years). I'm a little bummed because you're able to communicate through the donor program (not directly) and this person never once even sent a message that said thanks for saving my life. I'd still do it but it just upset me that they never cared about everything the anonymous donor goes through.

Another time, someone went into anaphylaxis at a restaurant. They didn't carry epi pens, but since I always do for my food allergies, I ended up using 4 of them on him plus a ton of chewable Benadryl before the ambulance arrived. I was the only one in there who had any Epi-pens, so without them he wouldn't have survived in the time it took to have emergency services show up.

Twice I've saved people with sepsis. It doesn't seem as well known in USA like in countries like in UK. Both people had UTIs and luckily I was visiting both (these were years apart) when I noticed they started getting rapidly rising fevers, despite being on Tylenol. We're talking going up an entire degree in 15 minutes. Lucky I JUST read a news article out of UK that mentioned the sepsis and symptoms for the first person. They were both really combative - probably because of the fevers- but I had to fight to get them in the car to drive them to hospital. First person was before covid so I got to go back with her. Then her vitals went haywire (bp dropped to very low numbers and heart rate shot up to compensate) and they kicked me out of the room to deal with bringing her back. She ended up in ICU for two weeks afterwards. The second one he was caught early enough he only spent 2 days in the hospital (although this one was during covid, so I couldn't go in, but he would text me the test results when they'd tell him).

I suffer from depression myself and there have been times I've been quite suicidal. Things certainly didn't help when I became disabled and can only do a fraction of what I could before and lost most of my friends. Once an ambulance/police was called for me by a friend who was concerned. She saved my life. But the ambulance guy said we don't know our purpose in life - maybe mine was to save those people because who knows what they would go on to do. I know he was trying to help, but when I think about it, it just makes me sadder because it makes me think I'm not worth much as a human (which is how I've felt since becoming disabled), but that these other people have worth.

#44

A few years back my mom (former hospice nurse and special needs caregiver) walked into a restaurant for a girl's day. We were greeted by multiple waitresses calling 911 and one hysterical woman, my mom jumped into nurse mode and ran to a nearby table where an elderly woman was having a seizure. It turns out she had gone septic after doctors botched a recent surgery. My mother very calmly began to resuscitate the woman, who had at that point stopped breathing while I dragged her daughter, who was trying to throw herself at her mother, to a nearby table. She promptly fainted and hit her head, once me and a very nice gentleman got her into the booth I sat with her until the EMTs arrived, got the elderly woman, who had been successfully revived, onto a stretcher and proceeded to take care of the daughter. After that we just ate lunch like nothing has ever happened.

#45

Several times - Probably the most dramatic one was when I pulled someone out of the white water at the top of a waterfall. In order to do it, I had to deliberately climb into the water and wedge myself between two rocks. He was clinging onto the other side, but losing the fight, and because of the noise I had to forcefully scream at him to release one arm and reach out to me. He was understandably terrified, but eventually did it. I grabbed his arm and pulled him with all my adrenaline powered strength, literally over my head to safety. Then I had to muster the strength to pull myself out.

#46

I unintentionally saved me and my family's life by having to use the bathroom. We were on a road trip and we stopped at a gas station because I had to go really bad. We then heard about a landslide that had occurred 2 minutes later. If we hadn't stopped we possibly would have been killed.

#47

My sister was actually sledding down our front yard into the road yesterday as a snowplow was coming down our icy road faster than she could walk in her snowgear. I used the little balance I had to skate across the road and pick her up. Snowplow kept going as if he didn’t almost scoop up a little kid.

#48

My grandmother, an eccentric artist like myself, used to end up in hospital about once a year due to asthma. Once, however, instead of being put into the ward for respiratory ailments, she wound up in the geriatric ward, with five hallucinating women and....no treatment whatsoever. Staff was just expecting her to die. I came to visit in the middle of one of her attacks; she was in full panic mode and I raced to the nurses' station, where one of the two staffers just stared at the ceiling and said, ''Yeah, respiratory distress is hard to watch''. I raced back to the ward and told the most obscene joke I could think of. Grandma gasped, and then resumed breathing normally. She was so thrilled by the joke that she immediately phoned my father to relate it to him. Both my parents chewed me out.

#49

I have two stories, I don’t know if the second counts:
At a summer camp, there was a kid who started hyperventilating due to getting his neck caught on a wire a few nights before. We were at the beach for a field trip, and I saw him on the ground. I rushed over to him. He was pointing to his backpack. I opened the first pocket, which had his paper bag. I gave it to him while my other friends went to get the councilors. Minutes later, an ambulance came and took him away. He was perfectly fine afterwards, fortunately.
The second one, I was at a friends place with my bro. The door of the garage we were in was opened, so we hit the button to close it. Our friends cat decided to sit RIGHT UNDER THE DAMN DOOR. The button to STOP the door from closing didn’t work. I had to rush over and shove the cat outside to prevent it getting crushed. After the door closed, we opened it again to let the cat in, and this time made sure it wouldn’t pull a stunt like that again

#50

I was speaking to an elderly friend on the phone one night, and she began not making sense. She then hung up and didn't answer when I called back. I drove to her security condo complex, but the guard wouldn't let me in. I called the police to do a welfare check, and she was on the floor when we got into her house. She refused medical treatment, but I kept trying to convince her to go to the hospital. I finally left, and she apparently had second thoughts, so she called another friend to to take her to the hospital. She had a brain bleed from when she fell. If I had done nothing after our phone call, she would have died overnight on the floor.

#51

yes - lifeguard - people that could not swim would walk through 4' deep water and step off in a stump hole & panic. sometimes on Monday we would have to go link arms and find the one that tried it when we weren't working, drown in a hole 3' in diameter. pulled a kid off the bottom of a pool when i was first starting out.

#52

My sisters and I saved a drowning man in the ocean when I was about 24. We were in Florida and there was a sandbar about 75 yards out that people were walking on. We were just hanging out enjoying the water when we heard a woman yell for help and saw her husband sort of bobbing up and down in the ocean. He had fallen off the sandbar into deeper water and couldn’t swim. He was sinking and then pushing himself off the bottom to come up for air but not able to get back to the sandbar. We swam over, grabbed him and draped his arms over each of our shoulders and swam him all the way to the shoreline. He was elderly and exhausted and thankfully the beach patrol was rolling up on their quad bikes just as we pulled him to land. They took over and we just sort of faded into the back and went about our vacation. When I look back at it, it’s surreal to think we literally saved a man from drowning in the ocean. My sisters and I aren’t amazing swimmers or anything, but we had the benefit of youth and teamwork and we sure did save that old guy.

#53

I personally haven't saved someone's life, but my twin has saved my life. I was young, like 6 or 7 at the time when it happened. I was in our local swimming pool and I think I had a seizure or something, but it made me end up banging my head on the side of the pool so hard that I temporarily lost consciousness. My twin saw what happened and swam over to me and grabbed my body from around the waist to keep my head from falling underwater as the lifeguard came over to me. Impressive what my twin did seeing as I am and always was that it bigger and heavy than she was. She is stronger than she looks. Anyway the lifeguard with the help of some other adults managed to get me our of the pool and into the lifeguard station. Luckily I was mainly unharmed and I managed to get away with it with only a nasty headache and a nosebleed to show for it.

And now even though I sometimes get annoyed with my twin, I always remember that if she didn't exist I would most likely be dead.

The story that comes out of it, no matter how much you hate your sibling/family member/friend or anyone for that matter don't be mean, or at least try not to, because one day they could be the person that saves your life, they did it my case.

#54

I not once but twice saves my forever guys life. the first time was when he wasn't feeling well, so we were going to go to the local walk in center, but he seemed to be getting worse on the way, so instead I told the taxi to go to the hospital instead, he had appendicitis and they were just about to blow and would have done if we hadn't gone to the hospital that very second.

The second time was when we were going to the local co-op and were looking around the veg part, when we came back out he was acting drunk and slurring his words he's the type of guy to just brush it off, but I put my foot down and got him to the doctors we were passing, which then rushed him to the hospital. he was in anaphylactic shock and would have died if we didn't him there. so lucky.

#55

This sounds very unbelievable but still. Yeah I saved my ups life possibly when I was two. We were playing and stuff and my dad was at work in a city an hours drive from my house but my mum has low blood pressure so she stood up really fast and she fell over smashed her head against a cabinet and dislocated her knee. So two year old me wanders in and tries to get her to play with me again but when I realise somethings wrong I get worried and remember that she had told me off for playing with the phone and nearly dialling 999 and told me it’s only for emergency’s so I got the phone dialled the number and said “mummy’s sleeping and she won’t wake up.” The police traced the call knocked down the door and my mum was taken to hospital. I got this info from my mum, my dad and News articles from when we get told to look up our own names at school because I was two so I don’t remember any of it. I have the vaguest vaguest memory of my mum lying on the floor and me shaking her but that’s literally it. So two year old me had some common sense.

#56

I kind of got vaccinated and have my booster, so....me +a bunch of other people.

#57

I stopped my next door neighbour from being run over by a bus. She sustained a broken arm, but if I had not grabbed her and pulled her back onto the pavement, she would have gone under the wheels. We were both youngsters.

#58

Yes, and more than once. I'm not a doctor.

The first time was I was babysitting a friend's elderly mother while she went to Paris on business. We were having dinner the evening the friend left when her mom suddenly got this far-away look in her eyes, clutched her chest, and fell over onto the floor. She was tuning blue, eyes open, unresponsive and not breathing. I started CPR on her and it was like making out with the Snuffleupagus...she was a pretty large woman. She spasmed, she coughed up a huge mucus bubble. In my mouth. Stopped breathing again, and meanwhile all this time I'm performing CPR too. Another mucus bubble and by then I'd had enough and I just shook her and yelled in her face that if she didn't start breathing she was going to die. You know what? She started breathing and I kept her going until the paramedics arrived.

The next time it wasn't successful. A lovely neighbor died in my arms. We miss her.

Another time I was in Hollywood for a meeting. When it was over a colleague and I descended to street level right on Hollywood Blvd. at the intersection of Vine. There was a city bus idling waiting for the light to change when this 50ish man with longer unkempt greasy hair wearing what once was a nice suit laid down on the street and put his head right in front of the 2 rear wheels. If the bus moved his head would have been smashed like a melon. My colleague, she was frozen in disbelief. I ran to the bus and started banging on the door of the bus screaming that somebody was trying to kill himself. In that instant I saw the color drain from the driver's face and he opened the doors and got out. I went to the guy on r street and yelled "What are you doing?" I can still see my colleague's face, three black circles for her eyes and mouth, and other people gathering around. The guy just got up, brushed himself off and walked up Hollywood Blvd like nothing ever happened. I followed for a few blocks and he wouldn't talk to me. I looked for police but there were none and then he turned a corner and was gone.

#59

Don´t know if it counts, but when I was a kid we visited a small waterpark in a different country. I was in a queue for a ride and my friend was waiting for me at the bottom. I was about to go when a toddler cut her way through the queue. It was really weird because this could have been max. a 2 yr. fully dressed and was there without a parent. All the kids just stared at her as she sat and went on the ride. At the end of it, she fell into the water face down. Nobody did anything we just kept staring, nobody even went on the ride. I don´t know maybe we waited for the toddler to start swimming or what, we were just kids. She stayed like that for a few moments, then her pacifier rose up to the surface and I thought well it doesn't look like she´s about to swim does it. I was afraid of going on the ride because we could potentially hurt her coming off of it, so I shouted at my friend who was waiting for me to pick her up. She did and the baby was fine. Crying and all but alive. We tried talking to the other kids to find out if maybe somebody was a sibling of hers, but we didn't know the language well. Soon enough, her mother came looking for her and all ended up well. I don't think she realized what went on this easily could have turned ugly.

#60

No, but my brother has saved mine, and he's five years younger than me! Mostly just a coincidence but still a cool story.

Our house was right next to an untended forest, and we had a swingset right in front of it. A lot of the trees were dead or dying. We were sitting on the swings and my brother made me mad. Something petty, but I stormed off into the house. About a minute later I heard screaming. I went outside and saw a giant tree branch big enough to crush someone's entire spine right in the swing where I was sitting. I could've died.

#61

Yes. The first few were Red Cross blood donations. The second was when I had to have my daughter tested for a possible allergy to iodine before she could undergo an IVP. (to examine the kidneys) which uses dye in the contrast medium to make the area being examined better visualized. It turned out that she indeed was allergic and the IVP was cancelled. Had I not had her tested First she could have died as a result of the allergy.

#62

I was taking someone's blood pressure and realized they were having a stroke.

#63

Yes, it’s not that interesting. I am following someone online they followed back, yada yada, until recently they said they were going to commit suicide. I wrote to them and told them not to do it, I said that I cared for them (In a friend way) and they are alive and well. I think I saved them and I check up on them from time to time. I don’t know this person personally, they are just a person online I follow, I don’t know their personal lives at all. So yeah, I did save a person.

#64

My husband (before I met him) came to the aid of a man who had been stabbed while travelling on a bus. Sitting a few seats ahead of my husband and the would-be victim, was the attacker who was being bothersome to other passengers .As the bus approached its scheduled stop, the attacker walked towards his target and stabbed him in the neck . My husband immediately grabbed the attacker's hand and forcibly removed the knife. He kept the struggling attacker in a headlock and walked him to the front of the bus while others helped care for the victim until the ambulance and police arrived. I’m so proud of him , he received a Medal of Bravery years later .

#65

Yes&no. 5ft. Figured out student was choking, had to get taller preggo teacher to do heimlich.

#66

Do animal lives count? I rescued a cat that was stuck in a car engine. After the vet cured him I adopted him. His name is Houdini and he is currently purring in my lap. Human lives? Not sure if a life, but serious injury. Years ago I shielded someone from being smashed in the face with a bottle at a bar fight. (Somebody had thrown it, we were not involved).

#67

No, I have not saved someone's life.

#68

My husband (before I met him) came to the aid of a man who had been stabbed while travelling on a bus. Sitting a few seats ahead of my husband and the would-be victim, was the attacker who was being bothersome to other passengers .As the bus approached its scheduled stop, the attacker walked towards his target and stabbed him in the neck . My husband immediately grabbed the attacker's hand and forcibly removed the knife. He kept the struggling attacker in a headlock and walked him to the front of the bus while others helped care for the victim until the ambulance and police arrived. I’m so proud of him , he received a Medal of Bravery years later .

#69

I came home one day and the neighbor kids told me there was a dead man in my backyard. I went to look and found my neighbor on the ground with no pulse and he wasn't breathing. (he had been mowing the lawn) Another neighbor and I started CPR and we were able to get a pulse and keep it until the paramedics came. He had had a heart attack. He came back from the hospital a few days later just as grumpy as ever.

#70

I've had to heimlich my smaller dog twice... apparently you should never say "drop it" to a dog who has a giant toad in it's mouth... instantly attempted to swallow ?

And, I'm a Registered Nurse in a hospital... life-saving kind of comes with the job.

#71

I was an RN when I found a patient in a diabetic coma. After I revived her found out the LPN who had given her insulin was actually a nurses aide. No qualifications for giving medication at all!

#72

My mum saved a ladies life when she was sitting in front of us on the bus (she’s a nurse) so yeah this lady was having a stroke or a heart attack and her friend was calling for someone to call an ambulance and for the bus driver to stop the bus and the driver was asking if anyone was a nurse and my mum was like yeah I am then the lady woke up sort of and tried to like stand up say she was fine and my mum was just like. No you are having a stroke then she made her sit down till the paramedics got there. She’s probably saved a lot more lives as well she’s a nurse training to be an ANP (advanced nurse practitioner)

#73

As RN for many years seemed to be a daily thing. I took care of a boy who had coughed out trach

#74

My parrot got a stroke mid-air and I heard him call in pain, but stop so quickly. I caught him, before he landed on the ground, but yeah. Now he can't fly or talk, only walk around his cage. Feel bad for him.

#75

My husband (before I met him) came to the aid of a man who had been stabbed while travelling on a bus. Sitting a few seats ahead of my husband and the would-be victim, was the attacker who was being bothersome to other passengers .As the bus approached its scheduled stop, the attacker walked towards his target and stabbed him in the neck . My husband immediately grabbed the attacker's hand and forcibly removed the knife. He kept the struggling attacker in a headlock and walked him to the front of the bus while others helped care for the victim until the ambulance and police arrived. I’m so proud of him , he received a Medal of Bravery years later .

#76

My husband (before I met him) came to the aid of a man who had been stabbed while travelling on a bus. Sitting a few seats ahead of my husband and the would-be victim, was the attacker who was being bothersome to other passengers .As the bus approached its scheduled stop, the attacker walked towards his target and stabbed him in the neck . My husband immediately grabbed the attacker's hand and forcibly removed the knife. He kept the struggling attacker in a headlock and walked him to the front of the bus while others helped care for the victim until the ambulance and police arrived. I’m so proud of him , he received a Medal of Bravery years later .