You Saved My Life!

He was staggering in front of me, as I walked my early morning walk. The man in front of me kept walking into trees and stumbling, almost falling on the ground, but not quite yet. I couldn’t see his face, as I was behind him. I thought he was someone, just walking out of some all night party, drunker than a skunk. As I watched him from behind, I realized he was a man I’d seen on my walks before. This man was in trouble! He wasn’t drunk, he was having a heart attack or something!

I caught up to him and grabbed his arm. I steadied him, and told him to sit down on the curb. I asked him if I could call someone for him. He slurred out the words for me to call his wife. Half his face was drooping and drool was coming out of his mouth. I asked him for his phone number and I had to concentrate really hard to understand the numbers he was giving me. When I dialed the number, I got an answering machine. I left a message, hoping his wife would pick up. Maybe she was screening her calls. I said that her husband was here and I think he’s having a heart attack. He looked up at me and said, “Stoke, I’m having a stoke!” I quickly changed it and said he was having a stroke. She didn’t pick up. I dialed again, and left another message, telling her my phone number and where we were located. No answer, just the answering machine. I dialed again, and again, hoping to catch his wife, repeating my number and our location.

For some reason, I felt I needed to go get my car. I think in the back of my mind, I was going to drive him home. I called his wife again, and she finally picked up. I explained to her that her husband might be having a stroke and told her exactly where we were located. We were literally under a corner where two streets intersected. Now that his wife was on her way, I went to get my car. Still not sure why I thought I had to get my car. On my way to the car, I called 911 to get an ambulance there. I told them where he was and they told me to stay with him. I told them I was on my way to get my car and they told me to go back. I was close to my car, so I got in it and drove back to where this stroke victim was. His wife hadn’t come yet, but soon a fire truck and ambulance quickly arrived. They sat him up on a stretcher, unbuttoned his shirt, and began putting wires on his chest. They put on an oxygen mask. I looked at him, sitting there on that stretcher, on the side of the street, wires crisscrossing his body, him, utterly helpless. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing I could do, except to call his wife and 911. The men working on him told me to stand back, while they worked.

The men said I could go, so I left. The man’s wife hadn’t showed up yet, but she was on her way. I walked to my car. On my way home, I burst into tears. To face a life and death situation like that was overwhelming. Life felt so fragile at that moment. He was just like me, walking around the lake to get exercise, when his whole life changed in an instant.

Flash forward, several months later and I’m walking my usual route when I see a truck is coming towards me like they’re stopping to talk to me. I look in the cab of the truck, and there’s the man who had, had a stroke. He rolls his window down. He says he wants to thank me, I saved his life that day. His speech was perfect. There seemed to be no side effects to the stroke he suffered. He said he owed me a lot and thanked me again.

I felt whole. I felt overwhelmed. I am not a nurse, nor a doctor. Yet, this man was thanking me for saving his life. After finishing my talk with the man, I felt like I was walking on cloud nine. God used me to save a life. I have no medical skills whatsoever. The only skill I needed was to be there and have a cell phone that works.

God can use us any way He wants. We don’t need the skills or the resume to match whatever it is God wants. I mean, if anyone should have been walking behind the guy having a stroke, it should have been my sister who is a nurse. But it was me. All I had to offer was a cell phone. I had to dial two numbers and one of them only had three digits. God can use any of His children at any time to do any kind of work. Just be willing, and God will walk you through it.