How does it feel to save a life?

I did it once when I was a kid. I don’t remember being anything but surprised that I was suddenly thrust into that type of situation.

“We’ve all been in a position to save someone from suicide”. Really? I must’ve been unaware of it.

@DominicX okay, fine, edited.

Not that I know of.

I don’t know, does talking someone out of destructive behavior count as saving a life? He wasn’t going to commit suicide, per se, but his actions would have gotten him tossed in the slammer. Prison ain’t no place to be. Other than that, not that I can remember. Surely I’d remember if I did something as important as saving a life, wouldn’t I?

When I was 10 years old, I saved another kid from drowning in a pool. I never told anyone about it at the time, though.

But anyway, I have been an Emergency Medical Technician for over 10 years and have saved countless lives including all the criteria you mentioned in your question. The first few made me feel like a hero, but after awhile the glamor wore off and saving lives just became part of the job, I guess.

It’s fair to say that it all depends on the situation and the personality of the one who is rendering assistance.

I have not saved a life, medically speaking I cannot wait for the opportunity, once I become a nurse But, I have met many mentally unstable people, when I myself was suicidal…mixing suicidal people all in one place brilliant! ~ You talk a lot about your experiences, and what goes on in your mind, it’s scary how similar the feelings are: the darkness, the helplessness. I’ve seen people have complete meltdowns and need to be tied down and injected with god only knows what. There were people I knew would never get out of that cycle, and there were others I felt a strong connection with, so we bonded. I don’t know if I ever saved anyone, but I know that they helped me..and if I touched them in a way that their lives touched me, then I guess you could say I’ve saved someone.

Saving a life does not create a life debt.

I’m sorry your friend made that decision. It sounds like that decision wasn’t because of you. I’m sure he won’t forget the impact you had on his life.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic oh that was just a story..of course I don’t think he owes me anything…just reminiscing…wondering how easy it is to drop friends that were significant because you are such a coward these days

I’ve saved a couple of times actually, I just think I’m there at the right time and I knew what to do so I did it but I don’t make them feel like they owe me anything and I don’t need them to repay me in any way.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir He might revisit this decision in the future. To cut someone out of their lives is an impulse move most times.

More to the question, I’ve never directly saved a life.

In my younger years I spent summers as a camp counselor/lifeguard ( we rotated the lifeguarding duties) and one occasion stands out.

A bunch of older kids horsing around pushed one of the younger kids off the dock into deep water. He was in too much of a panic to grab for the life ring thrown to him so I had to go in after him.

Immediately I was way too furious at the dimwits who pushed him and busy giving them a thorough tongue lashing and trying to think of a consequent punishment to bring the point home to them.

After the adrenaline wore off and I stopped shaking, all I can remember is the tremendous sense of relief for the thoroughness of the training required by the Red Cross to earn that little badge on the suit. I was also grateful that I had seen it as it occured enabling prompt action. The horror of what was avoided and the sense of relief was with me for the rest of the week.

So not really feeling like a hero but more like indescribable relief that I didn’t screw up.

No, I have not.

I was an RA (we called them CAs, though. Community Adviser…) at a university and got a page one night about a girl passed out on a floor of a bathroom. So I went up there and sure enough, there was a girl laying on the bathroom floor. This isn’t all that uncommon; college students like to get wasted and pass out on bathroom floors. I never quite understood that. So I nudged her and tried to get her to wake up, so I could get her to her bed to sleep it off, but she didn’t respond. I tried a couple more times. Nothing. She had a really faint pulse, so I asked another CA to call an ambulance. Turns out, she had a BAC of 0.3 or something insane like that (I don’t remember the exact number, but it was insanely high…What do you drink to get you that drunk?) She ended up being fine, but I suppose you could say I saved her life.

I don’t feel like I did anything special. I feel like anybody who had responded to that call that night would have done the same thing. In fact, this was over 5 years ago, and I was telling this story to a friend of mine a few days ago, and she was the first person to tell me I saved this girl’s life. So yeah. I’m happy I was there and I could do the right thing, but I don’t think it was anything extraordinary.

Personally, I’ve done this many times (too many to count and/or remember clearly). Every time I felt an immense sense of relief at having made the correct decisions under extremely stressful circumstances. After a while, I imagine I felt a little bit of pride at the thought of having saved someone, but even that fades quickly.

i saved my science teacher last year from dieing last year of a diabetic attack. it felt great

Saved a turtle crossing the street, I placed him/her into a pond. It was cool feeling to have preserving even though a reptile, still it was a creature too.

What strikes me most in your question is it sounds like you think you are owed something for saving this particular person’s life. Saving lifes as you can see from the respondes thus far it not an everyday occurrence I am sure you will always mean something to this person but it sounds like he just needs some space right now.
Bless You

I have saved two of my childrens’ lives, (each was choking, one I was sure I wouldn’t be able to save in time). Each time I felt incredibly lucky that they didn’t die, followed by immense relief, and then promptly had a nervous breakdown.

I have saved one live to a kestler chick.The feeling is pleasureable.It is like something tells you inside yourself.That is best what you can do in your live.fed it,breed it,let it free,

I almost died the day I was born, so someone saved my life. Obviously I don’t remember it… But I’m definitely thankful. I’ve never had to save someone’s life and I only hope that if I ever have to, that I’m successful.

Does saving your own life count? And to answer your question, I don’t think I ever really saved someone, and I really hope I never have to.

We are wired to feel great.

@DrasticDreamer Me too. I had forgotten about that. Thanks doc!

I have saved plenty of dogs lives and it felt awesome! I felt like I did something special and great and I was so proud that God saw me do it! There were these 2 dogs running around the neighborhood and they were loose but not strays.They were running around and I thought that they could get hit or that someone would take them who wasn’t their owner so I ran around and tried to find them with my sister and her friends and we found them running in our neighbor’s lawn.We ran and caught up with them and they were soo close to passing the street since there were so many cars going and I caught them and saw that their names were Buster and Jack.Then we took then to the address where they belonged and we gave them to the owners and they were just soo happy.I felt amazing.It’s good to save a life.:) It was nice saving a dog from getting hit.:)

@mponochie again, one paragraph of mine really had nothing to do with the other
as I already told @The_Compassionate_Heretic (above) I never felt he owed me anything other than basic respect which is regardless of whether or not I saved his life…saving his life was just something that, at least to me, made our friendship important, more important than usual…and how could you possibly know whether or not he needs space right now when his reason, explicitly, was that his girlfriend doesn’t like me and so he needs to stay a way from me

It feels pretty cool, I stopped a child choking on a nut by flicking it out (as taught on first aid course) and spotted they were having an allergic reaction to it, which meant that ambulance etc.. was called.

I was pretty shaken up immedeatly afterwards but I feel proud of what I did and every so often tell the tale, as a precautionary measure to others.

My ex-girlfriend and myself pressed each other to fight our depressions.
That saved our lives in the long run, i guess.
Other then that i only saved moths and dragonflies and bees and wasps from drowning in the pool.

I have saved people’s lives a couple or three times, including my Father’s, though I didn’t think so at the time.
I had to give CPR to a guard at my work when he collapsed.
Each time, afterwards, I didn’t feel heroic, or even energized by it, and certainly not like a life debt had been passed. I kind of felt like I was snapping out of automatic reaction mode.

I adopted my youngest son, 19 years ago, from a young girl who apparently was ready to have an abortion. She read my application from a social worker and decided to have the baby as long as I would be one of the adoptive parents. Thus I saved a life inadvertently. (This answer is not meant as an endorsement of some pro-life group, by the way.) It was the best thing I ever did as my son is brilliant, and a great person.

It made me feel a little better about myself, and more hopeful. It made me feel a little bit worthwhile. It was perhaps strange, because we both saved each other’s lives at the same time. We were both exceedingly depressed, considering suicide, and somehow, talking about that made us laugh unstoppably. Which started us both feeling a little more hopeful. Later on, whenever one was lying to himself, we called each other on it, and gave each other a kind of truth mirror that we trusted, because we knew we’d both been in the same place.

Yes, I did. Sort of. I saved someone from the Evil Auggie yesterday. Hopefully she’ll stay and become One Of Us. :)

Well, I think I saved my little sisters from drowning a few times, before they learned how to swim. I was told I did, but I don’t remember. I’m glad I did because I would not want to be an Only Child.

<< Pure evil.

ROFL, Auggie!

Ok i must be weird. Being in the restaurant business I have had the opportunity to save many choking victims. I have saved a person drowning and I have saved people whose home was about to burn. Yes, every time you get a sense of relief, but I also felt a sense of euphoria that lasted up to a week. In my younger days I use to get high. Not a good thing but the feeling I got after saving a life felt much better.