The day I saved someone's life

Not to be misleading with the title, this isn't some outstanding phenomenon of me jumping out of a plane into a burning building saving someone standing on a land mine while being held at gunpoint. On the other hand, I don't want to detract from the fact that another human being's life was saved, despite everyone thinking it was all a joke.

In movies you'll always see dramatic scenes of lives being saved and seldom will you see or experience anything of the like first hand and rarely (but a good thing) will you get a chance to call 911.

[Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to call 911 in this story, but on an elaborate side note: I actually got a chance to dial 911 in 2004. Out of all my crank calls back when I was a young buck, never did I dare dial 911 due to call tracing and the trouble that could come heeding Public Enemy's "911 is a joke" song, but the call went like this. I was working a late shift and around 1am a co-worker and I smelled what seemed to be smoke from a fire. We walked outside and followed the smoke to a building down the street that was completely inflamed (much like Ashley's boyfriend "Pop-tart" ). I hesitate but realize I won't be in trouble with the legal system if I call, and indulge. I kid you not, this is exactly how the conversation went.

Operator: 911, what's your emergency?
Me: Uhhhh, there's a building on fire and stuff.
Operator: What is your location?
Me : I'm at (whatever the location was).
Operator: (I hear nothing but typing) Okay.
Me: Ummm...so you should probably send some firefighters or something.
Operator: Yes, they have already been dispatched. Is there anything else you could tell me that would be helpful?
Me: No, there's just a lot of fire that needs to get put out.

What a great help I was! I got to call 911, not get in trouble, and even save a building's life!]

This life saving story takes place on a long bus trip from CT to Canada.

About 457 hours into this 10 hour trip, everything was going as it had the since the journey began. The group of us that were all about having a good time already wanted to kill everyone else on the bus for being so excited and talking non-stop while we were trying to sleep. It was like 5 in the morning and we had been out all night hours before this trip. Even if I went to bed at 12, I'd still want to sleep in the early morning on a bus, but I guess I'd be excited at 5am if it was my first time ever leaving the house too. I digress.

Since it was apparent after a few hours of this nonsense that there was going to be no shut-eye for this pilgrimage, we started playing cards, ranking on each other, telling jokes and playing "snaps," a game that me and one other person knew that no one else knew OR FIGURED OUT FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP. After quite some time, I had my life threatened if I didn't tell the others how the game worked and I was pretty scared. So, while threats started coming, the ranking and belittling from my friends and I heightened. As the jokes lengthened, the laughter increased. There seemed to be no climax or ending to this barrage of fun on others.

By now lunchtime had rolled around. As the joking and all the fun was going on, one of my buddies that was eating began to pretend he was choking because we were all laughing so hard. The way he looked made it even funnier, and the laughter yet again increased. The harder we laughed, the more he played out his "joke" which in turn made us laugh harder. The process kept repeating. We were all in tears laughing and by this time my I felt like I was going to vomit because my stomach hurt so much from the laughter that had taken place in the past 1/2 hour, and was only increasing with my buddy's latest ploy.

He was really getting into it, making the choking action with his hands around his neck, pointing to his chest then at us and it just got more and more elaborate like we were playing charades for the world championship(link). I finally clear the tears from my eyes and by the time I looked up to see his face, which is now purple, he has already grabbed me and placed me in the position to give him the Heimlich Maneuver. I can't believe this is happening.

I remember in school watching all those corny videos of people choking and being instructed of what to do in those scenarios and of course I never thought anything of it. Usually I would be sleeping or we would make fun of the video so much so that the teachers would remove the distractions, (the distractions being me and friends), forcing us to sit in the hallway while the video was being viewed. At this point in time I felt a bit of regret. I actually wished I had watched these worthless videos since I had no clue what the correct procedure was to save someone's life. My poor friend was counting on me, literally to save his life, and he was going to die in my arms.

Fortunately for him, I'm a smart puppy. I knew all about the sternum and the gist of this crazy Heimlich Maneuver. I do my best to pretend that his upper abdomen is another passenger on the bus' neck and squeeze as hard as I can. I repeat this until he spits something out and immediately gains color back in his face. We all sit in silence for a few seconds and then burst out laughing. We cannot believe what just happened. I tell my friend that he now has to buy me lunch, since I did just save his life.

The moral of this short yet intense story - don't ever bother me while I'm trying to sleep.

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