Four Minutes
We all wonder what we would do in
that moment when action is called for.
Later, I would marvel at the
incredible speed of the whole episode, images flashing in front of me like a
news promo.
I wrote those promos for years, but
never truly comprehended the gut wrenching, heart pounding feeling of trying to
save a life until a little boy fell over his mother’s lap in front of me,
struggling for every tiny breath.
I had just walked off an elevator
after a routine visit to the dentist. I headed for the exit, slightly annoyed
at the young boy who suddenly wandered into my path. His face was strange,
almost contorted and I paused to look back.
His mother jumped into action first,
realizing the child was choking on a piece of candy. She cried out for the
boy’s father and together they began pounding the child’s back, frantically
fighting to save his life.
I rushed back inside, blurting out,
“Do you need help?”
The mother looked up from where she
knelt on the floor, her eyes terrified, her head nodding a frantic yes as the
boys’ father continued to pound his young son’s back.
Without a word, I turned and bolted
for the first door I saw, stepping into an office and announcing loudly, “A
child is choking, can anyone help?”
I took no prisoners, defying anyone
to stop me from my mission as I moved further into the office. I didn’t know
the Heimlich Maneuver, but I knew how to get attention.
A young girl stepped from behind a
reception desk and threw open a conference room door. Within moments, a woman
bolted from the room, rushing past me and outside, where parents fought to save
their young son as someone else dialed 911.
Maybe she was a former nurse, a
mother who prepped for every disaster or just someone who took a class when it
was offered. I’ll never know.
She pulled the boy from his father’s
arms and grasped him tightly around the middle. Within moments, the candy lie
on the sunny sidewalk, the boy gasped in deep, fruitful breaths and the parents
wept as they thanked the Good Samaritan.
When I left the building the woman
who saved the little boy was holding him, gently comforting the youngster as he
cried.
Nobody said a word as I slipped by.
I knew it wasn’t my moment in the sun, although I was proud of what I had done.
Just months before I had quit my
career of 25 years, hoping to find a place where I could make a difference.
Wasn’t it great I found this place. This day. This time. This moment.
