Saving a Life

When you think about what you would do if someone were in need, you probably limit yourself by saying 'I have no experience in anything medical, I won't be able to do a thing'. That is just theory. In practice a complete new you will arise. Sounds strange but it does happen. Somehow we are able to put our mind in a state of no limitations when we are confronted with certain situations.

This happens in situations where you can act without thinking. You are on autopilot eventhough you may have never been in a similar situation before. In some situations it is just enough to be there, so the person who is hurt or wounded or uncomfortable in other ways, doesn't feel completely overwhelmed, lost, alone. Calming them down by being there always helps.

Some years ago, an unknown boy rang my doorbell, big eyes, 'You have to come, Sue got hurt'. What? Sue is my next door neighbor's daughter. Were these kids home alone, where was my neighbor, what had happened? Before rushing next door, I had to make sure my own kids knew what was going on. After ordering them to stay in their seat and not move till I returned from the neighbor's house, I went over to see what was happening next door.

Luckily my neighbor was home, but completely in shock, Sue was on the couch, bleeding. "Did you call 911?". My neighbor nodded. "What is taking them so long", she said, "maybe we should drive to the hospital ourselves". That didn't seem like a good idea. Sue was bleeding badly. She had fallen through glass and cut her arm. It was not just a cut in the flesh, there was too much blood for that.

With no knowledge of medical stuff, other than what they taught me in biology class in high school, I helped Sue keep her hand above her heart hoping to stop the bleeding. When her hand seemed to change color, I made her lower her hand for a while. I had no idea if this was the thing to do, but realized my being there, calmed down my neighbor and that in turn calmed down Sue.

When medical staff arrived we all felt relieved, glad they were taking over. They asked me if it was pulsing. If it what? They assumed I had known what I was doing, but I had not. I had not even looked at the wound, had no idea if it was pulsing. My neighbor accompanied Sue to the hospital, the unknown boy went home.

It didn't feel like I had done much, but later on my neighbor showed up letting me know how things went at the hospital and overloaded me with thank you's. It had meant way more to her than it had felt to me.

Back to saving a life

Yesterday evening there was a situation just like that, although you could say this time I kind of initiated the accident. Bummer!

Someone was about to violate my belongings. When I shoo him away, he gets disorientated, trips, falls on his back in black water and finds out he can't swim.

What do you do? Do you jump after him, do you tell him to swim. For a moment I wasn't sure what to do, but then I decided to save him the easy way. Picked up my teaspoon and pulled him out of my coffee.

This is the guy I am talking about. He had been bugging me for a long time with his bzzzz zzzzz zzzz bzzz while I was watching a movie. He was kind of stuck behind the shutters. Once he released himself he wanted to take a dive in my coffee. Before he could, I waved him away. That is my coffee, dude. The turbulence must have caught him by surprise, as he landed on his back in my coffee.

You can see the coffee bubbles all over his head and back. He immediately started cleaning himself up. It was strange to see him perform the same movements rabbits and cats do when cleaning themselves. Rubbing their paws over their head.

After a while he looked pretty decent again and took off. You could argue that it was just a fly, nothing important, but I am sure it meant a lot more to him :)
My coffee was wasted, that was the biggest loss.

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Images used:

buoy
ambulance
fly - Canon 550d camera