Thrice here. Maybe four?
1. Friend began sweating profusely complaining of a bad headache.
He wanted to just lay down for awhile. I tossed him in the car and rushed to the ER.
Turned out he was having a brain aneurysm. He was air lifted to a more advanced medical center. He did survive after a month long bout in the ICU and holes drilled into his head to drain spinal fluid and reduce brain swelling.
His neurologist told me several times that if I had not forced and taken him into the ER immediately like I did, he would have lost consciousnesses and died within two hours.
2. Retaliative, suddenly suffering terrible digestive issues. I recognized this as a probable heart attack. Just as in the previous case, he too insisted on just laying down to rest. I immediately called 911. Took 911 less then 5 minutes to arrive, where the relative has already lost consciousness. 911 medics revived him and took his to the hospital. I followed in my car. Upon arrival he was already in surgery. Again, the doctor stated if I had not called 911 when I did, he would have died.
Never question the onset of chest pains or sudden digestive pain along with profuse sweating and dizziness. McDonald's or other bad food as bad as that may be, should never cause severe chest-stomach pain with profuse sweating and dizziness.
3. I don't know if this saved a life, but in my younger years working in a small computer room out in CA, a 14 year old kid part of a family janitorial service was cleaning the room when the chemicals he was using set of the halon fire system. If you never experienced setting of the halon fire retardant system, you probably would not want to go through that experience. Within three or four seconds a gigantic huge tank of high pressured halon is released filling the entire room with a thick white smoke. Very much like being on the set of some Sci-Fi movie during the alien attack. Or a better example, the sudden decompression of a 727 airliner at 30 thousand feet. Everything not nailed down went flying around the room. In literally an split second I grabbed the kid by his shirt collar and exited the room. The release of Halon removes all the air from a room, or so I have been told, to retard an electrical fire. One second the halon shot off, the next second we were both safe outside the computer room. What I realized later and to my surprise, this was total an uncontrolled gut reaction on my part. I wasn't just mindful of myself getting the hell out, also without any conscious planning I had grabbed and removed both of us. I felt pretty good about that later when I realize this was a knee-jerk gut reaction on my part, concerned with the safety of another. I guess that's a good quality to possess? I surprised myself.
4. And still another medical response story that saved a life. A roomy from my college days woke complaining of difficultly breathing. Same mo on my part, insisting and rushing him into the local ER against his will, where he was then diagnosed with suffering from an onset of pulmonary embolism. Better known as THE WIDOW MAKER. Again I was told by the ER staff, my swift response and reaction no doubt had saved his life.
I actually have fifth save under my belt but that's enough for now.
I don't want to brag, but if you find yourself in an emergency situation, I'm not the worst person you could have around. 😉
