We had an elderly neighbor, across the street, who'd had numerous strokes over the course of more than 20 years. He was really not all that mobile, and probably ought to have been in an assisted living situation, but he really valued his freedom and even still drove to the grocery store. His wife had died (from a stroke) a couple of years prior.
One night in early December, the man who lived in the house on his east side smelled smoke, came outside, looked around, and saw the smoke coming from the eaves of the elderly neighbor's house. He immediately pulled out his cell phone and called 911, and then came across the street to get me to help.
I'll shorten the tale a lot. What we did in the following few minutes turned out to be precisely the right things, and the paramedics (who arrived first, but with no firefighting gear and no door basher) were able to get the man out of the house in time. He was unconscious, and had a blood CO level of 45 ppm when they got him to the hospital, but he wasn't badly hurt despite being mere feet from the entrance of the burning kitchen when he was found.
The firemen said that if we'd done anything different, he might not have been alive when they pulled him out; *everything* we had done was, in their opinion, critical; every second had counted, and we apparently bought him the few he needed.
He lived another 5 months before yet another stroke finally did too much damage. At least his family didn't have to deal with having that funeral under circumstances that would have been a lot more grim.
Sometimes things go right. |
