I Tried To Save His Life, The Full Story

I was devastated

I have thought about writing this story a few times. However, I have never gotten past the first few lines before stopping and deleting them.

Today, I hope to push through that barrier and keep writing until I get to the end of it.

Starting this article with, “I had just completed a three-day first aid course”, I guess it lets you know where this story is going.

I was on stage when the incident happened. I was working for a national bingo company calling out the numbers.

I heard a commotion in the background and people waving me to come off stage, but I could not leave midway through calling.

After a few minutes, the manager of the bingo company approached me and told me to get outside, and he would finish calling the numbers; there had been an incident.

Not knowing what I was about to see, I went to get the first aid box and was told there was no time to hurry. My heart started to pound, this was clearly serious, and I had zero experience apart from a three-day classroom course on first aid 24 hours earlier.

I ran outside to the roadside; I could hear a man shouting, “I’m dying, help me,” and people stood around screaming and watching him. It was like a horror movie scene; looking back, what happened next was hard to believe.

I ran past a motorbike, which he had clearly come off and saw his left arm on the floor. It had totally come away from his body, and there was blood squirting from the exposed body and him shouting for help.

I did not even think; I ran over to him, put my hand under his armpit and blocked his artery; this stopped him from losing blood and something that I had remembered from 24 hours earlier on my exam.

I asked him to calm down and told him that I was in control now, that he needed to listen to me, then we would get through this together.

I asked him his name and where he was from; this was pure to gauge his reactions and bide me some time; it was vital that we got to know each other fast. I needed him to stay with me and keep him lucid.

“Has anyone called an ambulance?” I ask, no one had, I was tamping “someone call a fu*king ambulance” I had to get a grip of myself, shouting was a mistake, I needed to focus on this man who needed me.

Someone shouted, “The ambulance is 25 minutes away” I could not believe my ears but had to remain calm. “Great, I replied, they will not be too long then”.

Concentrating on this man, I asked him about his family and hobbies; he was an aspiring amateur boxer, “I can’t feel my arm”, he said, crap what could I say? I thought he knew it was not attached, but clearly not.

I explained that he was in shock and that his mind was thinking strange things; we just needed to keep breathing and talking until the ambulance arrived to help him further.

In reality, I could see this man dying in front of me; I had no experience and a crowd that was not helping with the comments and screams in the background.

This woman was standing on the side, that had said very little, I looked at her, and she smiled at me, trying to encourage me. “What is your name,” I asked, “Sally”.

“Great, Sally can you get the people away from us, stand back maybe 50 yards or so and get an update on the ambulance for me please,” She went straight to work, and I felt a sense of relief, I felt like we were the only two calm people here.

The man asked if he had lost his arm and was starting to stutter; he was getting cold and started drifting away from me; I told him that I could see his arm; yes, it was a white lie, but there were bigger things at stake, boxing was the last of my worries.

Sally returned and said another 15 minutes or so for the ambulance; I did not know how I would get through this and, more importantly, how he would get through it.

She took off her coat and put it over him, then sat down on the floor and put his head on her lap whilst I continued to stop the blood from coming out. My arms were on fire; I had been holding his artery for so long that I started to get pins and needles.

Sally asked if I wanted her to take over, but I could not risk it and said no; I could hear a siren in the background, but alas, the ambulance went past; this one was not for us.

The man slipped unconscious, and it was a struggle to get him back around; just as we managed to do so, our ambulance arrived. They immediately took over speaking to the man, getting him some oxygen and injecting him with….I don’t know what.

Once they had him stabilised, they asked me what had happened, and I explained my part the best I could from when I arrived on the scene.

“Rob, you have done a great job; if you had not stepped in, he would have died” I just stood there and looked at him; he seemed helpless, and I knew his life was going to change forever.

“Is he going to be ok?”

“That is too soon to say, but you did a great job; if it were not for your experience, he would have gone, with his injuries, he had not longer than 5 minutes left for first aid, he would have bled to death.”

“I passed my course 24 hours ago”, I explained.

The ambulance man looked at me in amazement, “You just acted as if you had 24 years of experience, don’t drive home tonight; please go to the hospital for a check-up.”

With that, they left, the crowd departed, and I was just stood there in the dark, cold evening. It was over, and I was in shock. I felt an arm around me; it was Sally.

I turned, and she cuddled me, “thank you, I could not have done this without you, Sally” she walked me back inside and sat in the staff room with me; some of the employees came in to see what had happened and if I was ok.

I ran to the toilet and threw up when I went back to the staff room; Sally had gone, I have never seen her since, I wish I could have said goodbye, and I hope that she is ok and I would have liked to have stayed in contact if only for a short while.

I stayed at work for maybe half an hour to gather my thoughts and then drove straight home; I was 18 years old, so I was still living with my parents at that time.

I walked through the door and heard my parents call me into the room, but I froze; my mother came into the hall. “Robert, what is wrong.”

“Nothing”

“Robert, you have blood all over your shirt, come and sit down.”

My dad got up off his seat and poured himself a whisky, or so I thought; he handed it to me and said, “drink it.”

I down it without a reply, so he poured me another one; I downed that too, he told me to stand up and put his arms around me, and I burst into tears; I was inconsolable, my parents were talking to me, but I have no idea what they said.

My dad took me upstairs and helped me get undressed, then he put me in the shower; I put my arms on the wall and had visions of my arms falling off, it was like a dream, but I was awake.

I must have showered for maybe 30 minutes; my dad turned it off and got me out, not a word was said, and I got into my comfies, went downstairs and cuddled into my mother.

Maybe an hour went by, and I started to talk about what happened; my parents held my hands and just listened to me; as I cried telling the story, I felt lucky to have such a great family.

I did not work for three days and had nightmares for about four months after that. My employers were not very supportive; they just wanted me back; they had no idea how much this had impacted me.

When I did go back to work, I found it very difficult and did not call bingo numbers for a few weeks; I was a shadow of myself for quite some time.

A public member approached me and said that he had been there on the night it had happened. He thanked me for what I had done that night and said he had come to bingo just to see me.

He was a friend of the family of the boy I had saved; I asked whether the man survived as no one had told me, and I was not sure how to find out.

He did survive but lost his arm, it was going to take some time to recover, and that he had set his sights on boxing for the Welsh disability team, I was happy and sad at the same time.

I felt very emotional and shook his hand, saying it was not just me; Sally had been a tremendous help and that she was my strength on the night, and I was gutted that I had not seen her since.

The man looked puzzled; there was no one with you; I arrived just as you did, you were on your own the whole time, this man had clearly got it wrong, I explained how she got the crowd away and gave the guy her coat etc.

“No, it was your coat under his head, and someone passed you a blanket to put over him. There was no woman with you.”

I called a friend over at work and asked him, but he said that he was not in on that night, then another member of the public came up and confirmed what this man had told me.

“It must have been the shock; there was no woman”, they confirmed.

Someone must know, so I asked the people who were in the staff room with me on the night, but they all confirmed the same thing. So I had to go and run out of the building to where the incident took place.

“I know Sally is real, and I still want to thank you for your help wherever you are; I needed you there, Sally, and you were with me. I know you were.”

Written by Robert Ralph

Please would you buy me a Ko-fi

Join Medium here (Affiliate Link)

Originally published https://www.robertralph.blog/members-section/i-tried-to-savenbsphim