Things that make you proud in yourself

[Disturbedguy]

This can be recent or from a while ago and a little story with each with be good.

So I will start.

This was from last year, about October. Was on the bus on the way home from football, now the area I come home through is quite rough and it isn't unusual to see a drunk person lay on the kerb. Anyway, an old man got on the bus, looking rather unsteady on his feet, me being me I instantly thought yeah he is drunk but thought nothing about it. Anyway some 10 - 15 minutes when he is getting off the bus as he walks past me, he gives me a proper whack in the side of the head, I just thought nothing about it again and just thought ah well he is drunk, no harm done I am still alive.

Anyway, he got to the front of the bus and seemed to be getting unsteadier by the second while he was stood there and was shaking a rather lot, at this point I thought something wasn't right so as he got off the bus I watched him walking by the bus, then suddenly he walls into the side of the bus then vanishes and doesn't get up, then bus driver goes to set off so me and another passenger shouted at him to stop, he stopped the bus and me and another passenger ran off the bus, the guy had fell and was head and shoulders under the bus.

Me and the other passenger carefully helped him from under the bus and put him on the pavement, shaking more and getting quite hot and clamy, not knowing fully what was wrong we decided it best to put the guy in the recovery position, we decided to use my bag as a cushion to stop him smashing his head off the pavement.

Eventually a passer by told us he was fitting, by now hwe had already phoned for an ambulance. So the passenger and bus driver did one and left me sat there with this stranger, so I just did what felt natural, sat and heald his hand while talking to him, a few minutes later the ambulance turned up. They did some quick checks and it was decided he was having a diabetic fit. As he was getting very warm the ambulance crew wanted to cut his clothes off, but I asked them not to as he was old and he may not have much, so after a little struggle we got his jacket off, it then took FOUR of us to lift the guy onto the stretcher, he didnt look like he weighed much at all, but as he was fitting and was effeectively a dead weight, it was hard to lift.

Got him on the stretcher, fastened down, got a thanks from the paramedics and off they went. I will be honest I stood and just stared for about 10 minutes as the ambulance was driving off, not knowing what to do or feel, I felt very over whelmed and to be truthfull wanted to cry.

I don't know what happened to the guy, but hope the guy was ok.

Now I feel proud of what I had done and would definitely do it again without hesitation. I have never had any medical training or experience in it apart from what I did in primary school which was Crucial Crew, so anyone else care to share?

[golwg]

Well done mate. You did well.

[MasterFlash]

Good stuff. Blooming good job you stopped the bus eh?

I haven't had such an experience myself, but I hope I'd act as quickly as you did.

Well played sir

[kidzer]

Good effort, definetley something to be very proud of.

[Disturbedguy]

Cheers.

At the time I was really scared and didnt actually know what I was doing and well, was in auto pilot. Yeah I would have hate to have seen what would have happened had the bus not stopped.

[Disturbedguy]

No one else got anything to share?

[Kata]

Well, I've saved the lives of two people, but there's not much of a story to it tbh Them drowning, me grabbing them/releasing them from the tangled ropes.

[Singh400]

I once helped an old man carry his shopping to his house.

Then another time on the bus, mom and baby in pram just coming off the bus. Pram wheels got trapped under the bus, the mom got in a right panic. Anyways long story short, I managed to get the pram free.

Another time some "oiks" top deck, back of the bus decided to smoke. Well I wasn't having any of it, and I asked the to stop. Thinking back I was very stupid, and could have gotten stabbed or something. But god damn I am fed up of coming back home stinking of fags.

And my ability to make anyone smile

[eshrules]

around a year ago I was on the approach to a roundabout, I stopped, awaiting a clearance in traffic to enter the roundabout.

The weather was poor, with the roads quite greasy.

I saw a Silver astra collide with another red car.

Silver astra was clearly at fault, having suddenly changed direction, hitting the red car's inside rear and then mounting the central reservation/roundabout.

I wasn't going to bother stopping until I saw the chap from the silver astra get out, already on his mobile, shouting abuse in the direction of the red car.

Who was driving the red car? An elderly gentlemen with his wife in tears, clearly shaken up from the accident.

Concerned for their safety I pulled up behind them, put on my hazards and handed over my details.

I was contacted just before Christmas by the chaps insurance, to provide a witness statement and as a direct result of which, the chap I stopped to help was able to ensure the silver astra paid all costs.

I didn't know this until the elderly chap turned up at my door a few weeks ago, with a case of pretty expensive wine and the below letter in his hand.

one of my proudest moments

[TheAnimus]

actually someone did something very similar for an old coworker of mine, saved him quite a fortune as the car was written off in the end.

The witness and his wife lived a few hundred miles away, so he bought them a nice dinner at some fancy restruant he found on google!

[Mike Fishcake]

I salute your community spirit, Mr Disturbedguy!

Whilst it's easy to assume that they're inebriated, there are a number of legitimate reasons why some people may be lying on the ground/staggering around in public. Epilepsy, Narcolepsy and vertigo amongst other things, which is why I'll always make sure I do something if I see someone that looks like they may be in trouble. I did have to phone 999 once, because there was one guy who was acting a bit aggressively when I asked him if he was OK, but he was staggering down one of the main roads in to the city centre, so I needed to do something about it for his safety and the other road users' safety!

This thread reminds me of the first post in b3ta.com's Question Of The Week from November:

http://www.b3ta.com/questions/present/

(the rest of the page might contain some rude language)

That first posting is one of the best acts of kindness I've ever heard about. Just wonderful.

Edit: Warning - if you're a wuss like me, it might make you "get something in your eye".

[Hicks12]

I aint done much come to think about it, can only remember one thing that is kinda similar i.e i helped someone else.

My friend was going out with this lass (shes few years younger than him, like 15/16) and eventually they ended it after 1year + and she claimed he raped her, now ive know my mate ben for 10 years and he would never do that and all the lies she made didnt make sense. He started getting alot of crap from friends of the lass and was getting many threats via text/email and sometimes face to face, now so far in my life ive seen too many threats to let it stand anymore and decided to step in.

Eventually that ended up with me visiting the house of his lass with him and i polietely told her to undo what she lied about and if not then i will make sure the threats stop, unfortunately she didnt stop them and i was confronted by her brother....After him threatening me he eventually started on me (i was moving so he must of got annoyed), swift uppercut and suffice to say the threats stopped and my mate is now a lot less worried as he has to much crap to dealk with already!.

Now violence isnt the answer most of the time but i believe it was the right step to sorting this mess out .

Now it does make me realise i do so little for the public though .


edit: Well i can recall someone who helped me, i had just got out of hospital from an operation on my arm so couldnt really lift much at all with one hand spare and my sister was outside and had to wait by car (cant remember why), but anyway i was having trouble carrying all my stuff i took in and this guy saw me struggling on the way out and offered to help carry my things to the car, thankfully he didnt run off with it but actually helped and i really appreciated it... made my day cause im so used to people being crap to me .

[Teamsreth]

That first posting is one of the best acts of kindness I've ever heard about. Just wonderful.

Edit: Warning - if you're a wuss like me, it might make you "get something in your eye".

Bugger, I seem to be one of them wusses you mention....

Personally, I have not done anything like the OP.

I give blood, and have a beautiful baby boy. Both of those make me proud.

In the vein of the OP, I have not been in a similar situation, but I have helped people push damaged/broken down cars, given lifts to people to get fuel. Have also "had words" with some people picking on family members and friends. So as my general disposition is towards helping almost anyone, I would hope I could act in a similar way, if confronted with a similar situation.

Anyway, nice one Disturbedguy.

[megah0]

A few years ago I was walking to the shops with my (then) missus when a runaway transit van hit a pedestrian right in front of me. I called for an ambulance, sat with the chap, holding his hand and getting him to talk to me, got some passersby to direct traffic as he was in the middle of the road and helped the paramedics when they showed up and gave a statement to the police.

Turned out someone had tried to nick the van, released the handbrake then bailed out of it leaving it to hit this bloke. Never found out what happened to the bloke though.

Got numerous stories from my nurse training which I can't speak about obviously.

I got helped a few years ago when I came off my bike landing on my face breaking my nose, dislocating my jaw and cutting my chin open to the bone as well as fracturing my wrist. A couple in a car stopped and stayed with me until a family member collected me. Really wish I had taken their number and address.

I also saved a friend from drowning when his large rubber ring flipped over hitting him on the head and knocking him under the surface, my mates still say theyve never seen me move so fast when I jumped into the water.

In my experience in those situations you don't think, you just act and get on with things

[Haiku32]

I've never really been in a situation where I've had to react fast to save someone from being hurt, or to stop a situation from escalating.

I gave blood the first time the blood bank came to my town after I turned 17, and I am going to give every 3 months if I can. Only takes about an hour in total, doesn't hurt that much, no adverse effects and you get a free teacake! I have been reading up about donating bone marrow when I turn 18, but it sounds like a far larger effort than giving blood. So I'd probably like to read up on some peoples experiences with it before I make up my mind.

[sammyc]

Well done to you Disturbedguy. I've never done anything that brave, I am useless in a crisis especially medical and though people often say you'll find some courage if the situation calls for it, that's not been my experience.

Moral support wise I am a bit better though, and over the last few years I kept in touch with an elderly gent (friend of the family) and phoned him regularly as clockwork right through his getting married again, his wife's later illness, and up to when he died last year. It was quite hard going sometimes as he was often on the phone for an hour or more 2-3 times a week, and when his wife was ill we spoke every night & understandably that was quite heavy & emotional; but I'm quite proud that I was always there & never once put him off or made an excuse.

Not to make it sound like it was chore as he became a friend too, it was a commitment nonetheless, but I feel I made a difference to that one person who didn't really have any family.