I'm feeling a bit introspective about life tonight. I can't say for sure, but I may have saved a life which has made me quite pensive.
We all hear people tell us, "Everything happens for a reason." I've been considering that.
This all started a couple months ago when little league had a First Aid Clinic I attended. I sat in the front row thinking "I'd like to be ready if someone ever needed me." Yet I just didn't think my time would ever come. After all, it was a mere passing thought in a train of thoughts.
Tonight I arrive at little league for a board meeting to learn it is canceled. I decide to hang out with friends a bit, order a bite to eat over at McGlynn's and relax at the fields taking in an evening of perfect weather. I could have just went home, but I didn't. An hour goes by and I'm heading back to my car.
Suddenly two young girls about 14 dash by me and the one is screaming to her mother ahead of them, "She's choking!" I pick up my pace behind them and her mother tries futilely to dislodge what is caught in her daughters throat. I've run up to her now thinking this is now getting serious. A full 10 seconds or so has gone by and she is starting to sway as if she may lose consciousness. I couldn't see if she was turning blue but I could sense the panic in her friend and mother. I step in and I give her about five hard slaps in the upper back as I learned and then finished the Heimlich Maneuver. I stayed calm but it was like an out of body experience while it was happening. After the second thrust it worked. A ... more »
