Have You Saved Someone's Life?
Tell us your story. Here's one memorable event:
On Fourth of July weekend at Lake Colchuck, we awoke to six inches of snow. With freezing high winds, it was sleeting sideways. Mountains create their own weather.
Hiking out in the storm, my boyfriend and I came upon a Forest Service ranger lying beside the trail. Dressed in a wet T-shirt and shorts, she was shivering violently and gasping for air. Her mother-in-law dithered around uselessly.
“Why can’t she breathe?” I asked. “She forgot her asthma inhaler and a jacket,” her mother-in-law replied.
Quickly I gave her two puffs from my emergency asthma inhaler (always in my pack). Although the ranger could breathe, she had hypothermia. I dragged her under a tree to get out of the storm. Asked my boyfriend to boil water and shield her from onlookers.
I pulled extra clothes from my pack. She was about my size. Quickly I pulled off the ranger’s wet clothes. I dressed her in long underwear, rain pants, a turtleneck, sweater and down jacket. Made her a makeshift raincoat from a large plastic sack. Gave her my hat and gloves, since I had a hood.
Pouring hot tea down her throat, we fed her candy for energy. Although she was reviving, she was still groggy and stumbling. Two teenage boys came running up the trail.
“Do you guys have a cell phone?” I asked. “This woman is in serious medical trouble. She has hypothermia. Please run back down toward the trail head. As soon as you get a signal, call 911 and ask for an ambulance. Tell them we will meet the ambulance at the trail head in 2-1/2 hours.”
Off they went. Nice boys.
I had her mother-in-law carry my pack. Holding the ranger’s arms over our shoulders, we carefully sidestepped down the steep, rocky trail. There was a sharp drop-off on one side of the trail. The ambulance was waiting at the trail head.
“Can I get your name and address?” the mother-in-law asked as the ranger was being tended in the ambulance.
Later, I got a beautiful letter from that ranger. She returned my clothes.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she wrote. “I thought I could run up to Lake Colchuck like I do every day. I knew better than to go unprepared. I feel embarrassed to tell my work colleagues what a stupid thing I did. I will never forget your kindness.”
Photo: Lake Colchuck (6,000 feet) with Dragontail Peak (9,000 feet) behind me. August 2010.
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38 comments (26 - 38)
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Absolutely - thousands of times. In fact many times every day.
I'm driving my car. There is a curve in the road. There are pedestrians on the pavement. I turn the steering wheel to follow the course of the road.
My actions - turning the wheel - directly avoid my car mounting the pavement and killing those people. If I had not taken that action, they would have died.
ToakReon
Level 8
July 7, 2018
0
I was a lifeguard at the lake and a small girls arm floaty got stuck under the dock and she couldn't get her arm out. Other kids didn't notice or help but I swam out to get her. I also had a saved a kid who dived in the shallow end and hit his head on the sand. He ended up with a stinger and was paralyzed for an hour or so. (Full disclosure I told the kid not to do it and he didn't listen so I wasn't very remorseful). I also saved my own life when I was choking on food. My brother and mom were in the other room watching tv and couldn't figure out what was going on. My mom flipped out and my brother was just in shock. I had to grab a chair and give myself the heimlich maneuver. After I got the food out and breath back I royally bitched at them and taught them all the heimlich maneuver and CPR right then and there lol.
McWalsoft
Level 6
July 7, 2018
3
@McWalsoft
Amazing stories. Well done.
Been in that situation a few times, once when I was only 15 and I was waiting for a friend and I guy came out of the house across the street with a roll of paper towel between his arms soaked in blood. He had just bought the house and the previous owners had given it a coat of paint to spruce it up before putting it on the market and they painted the old double hung windows shut. The guy had been trying to force the window open to air the place out and he wound up putting both arms through the glass resulting in very deep cuts but not spurting so he missed the arteries. My friend came outside with his girlfriend, saw the blood and vomited. The guy was really pale so I took the paper towels away and put the worst arm wounds in compression to stop the bleeding, then I got my buddy's girlfriend to do the same on the other arm which wasn't too bad and yelled at my friend to call 911. The ambulance was there in 5 minutes or so and by then the guy was fainting but they stabilized him and took him to hospital, the EMT said the guy would have bled out if he had kept the paper towels drawing out the blood from his wounds.
Another time I had a worker start coughing after he swallowed a bee that had gone into his can of coke and it stung him in the back of the throat on the way down when he took a drink. His foreman told the man to go back to work as it was his own fault for drinking a coke when it wasn't break time. I overruled the foreman as I was in charge of the site and employed his company to do work for me, drove the guy to the hospital and got him there just as his throat was closing up, a shot of adrenalin saved him although they did have to ventilate him for a bit. When I brought the worker back to the job site his foreman wanted to dock the man's wages, so I told him to either pay him for the day or pack up and get off my job site, permanently. The guy got paid but I never subcontracted work to that company again.
Surfpirate
Level 9
July 7, 2018
4
@Surfpirate
Wow! Good for you.
@LiterateHiker It's amazing how callous some employers can be towards their employees, even at the family factory I found this to be true. I found one worker cleaning out a transformer tank with a powerful metal cleaner with only a rag tied over his face, I managed to pull him out of the tank before he was overcome by the fumes. He started vomiting and couldn't walk or stand up without my assistance so I took him to the Emergency dept. at the local hospital where he was given oxygen and he recovered. My stepdad was so pissed off at me for doing this, he thought it would make the other workers lazy but he was just too cheap to pay for proper safety equipment. The guys refused to do that job without a fan to clear the fumes and a proper dust mask with chemical filters after that experience, the old man was pissed off at me for years over that one. A year later he had to step up safety protocols when a delivery guy electrocuted himself when they were running up a large transformer for testing to 150% of rating. The guy died on the spot because there weren't proper lock outs, just a piece of caution tape that he ducked under to save a few seconds to make the delivery. The factory was shut down for several days while an investigation took place and my stepdad was fined heavily but to this day he thinks that he was the wronged party.
@Surfpirate
Your asshole stepdad sounds like a Republican.
@LiterateHiker He's called a Progressive Conservative up here in Canada, although there is nothing progressive about him. I think of him as proof that you don't have to be smart to be rich, you just have to be greedy, cheap and mean - luckily for him my mother is religious or she would have left him long ago. Fiscally I am to the right of him but socially I am far to the left.
Is that mt st. Helen's? great story and deeds for sure.
hankster
Level 9
July 7, 2018
1
@handster,
Behind me is Dragontail Peak, 9,000' elevation. For clarity, I added "Dragontail Peak" to my photo description.
Thanks your compliment.
I once saved an office full of people from an explosion...Not really. I saved a bird once...No, not really. (hangs head in shame) I've never saved any beings in my life (full on snotty-nosed sobbing).
Hermit
Level 7
July 7, 2018
2
@Hermit
That's hilarious! At age 12, I saved my little brother when he fell through the ice. Have always stayed calm in a crisis.
Wow! If I ever hike in the mountains it will be with you. Not trying to get personal here but I would not be prepared, not like that. I am not an idiot, just like to make sure I will get back. Thanks for the picture.
dalefvictor
Level 8
July 7, 2018
1
I prevented 2 people from killing themself. One I wish did...
TheGreatShadow
Level 9
July 7, 2018
2
I’m sorry. We can’t save everyone.
Please elaborate
@Bignate901 one had a 357 pointed to his head. The other tried to hang himself.
Had a couple, one was the usual swimming out to get someone who was swept out in a rip, then had a seizure in the water, not fun on my own I was 16. But a strange one about 10 years back. This woman was walking very close to the edge of a cliff, far too close, (I am scared of heights myself). She obviously wasn't watching where she was going and as I walked past she lost balance, somehow I managed to grab her hand as she went backwards. She gave me the nastiest look then looked behind her, started crying. She had not realised she was on the edge, just not paying attention.
Rugglesby
Level 8
July 7, 2018
3
Great shot!
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