On my way home from work today, I stopped to fill up my car with money-sucking gas. As I was about to pull out of the station, a car stopped about 100 feet away from me...in the middle of the road...with a trail of 5 cars behind it.
Out of the driver's door pops a women flailing her arms and putting her hands around her throat. That's right...she was CHOKING!
I absolutely froze in panic. I don't actually know how to do the heimlich! I only know what I see on TV. This lady is going to die in front of my very eyes because I can't dislodge the object from her throat.
Suddenly, a women darts out of the driver's side of her pickup truck and runs to the choking woman. As she's doing this, I snap out of my panic and dial 911. FYI - this is my first emergency phone call to 911...I was nervous.
The operator asked me questions like what she was choking on, how old she was, was she breathing. I, however, was still in the gas station parking lot. So I ran (yes, ran) into the middle of the road to the side of the woman, just in time to see an object pop out of her mouth. What that was, I have no idea. The poor woman was in tears, but she was breathing. I asked if she wanted the medic to come anyway. She declined.
After hugging the woman who just saved her life, the (previously) choking woman got back into her car and we all drove away.
The moral of this story? I'm taking a CPR class. My Grey's Anatomy/WebMD medical degree just isn't cutting it.
3 comments:
Oh my!! How scary! I need a CPR refresher...it's been years. And the scary thing - is that in a building full of nurses, I'm one of the ones certified to use the AED (automatic electric defribulator)!
Oh man..I'm SO scared of things like this happening..and keep saying I really need to take a CPR course..but never do.
I think you just motivated me to do that.
Holy smokes.
I know! It was super scary. But I'm actually signing up for CPR. Good wake up call!
Post a Comment