Some of you might know I am a paramedic.

The other day I was not working the 911 side of my job. Instead, I was working a 'critical transport' squad that normally takes people from hospital to hospital, or from the ER across town to the Cath Lab. It is a nice departure from pre-hospital medicine, but I wouldn't want to do it all the time.

It was quiet, and we had nothing scheduled. Being a truck without a 'local' meant we could *within reason* ride around townships that our 911 trucks didn't cover (other hospital's local area).

Anyway, I get on a highway and have gone about a mile up the road when I see a car pulled over on the side of highway, passenger door open. There is a man leaning on the door like he is tired or feeling ill.

I am not good at painting a picture of instinct, but my instantaneous gut reaction was "there is somebody in trouble". I mean, from the superficial aspect, there didn't appear to be anything seriously wrong. And, he had a friend with him on the phone. I have fairly decent instincts, and have learned to listen to them over the 22 years I have been a medic. At that moment, they were screaming at me, and not for any 'reason' I could put my finger on.

It really bothered me. I began to mentally try and talk myself out of the feeling I had, but it continued to nag at me. Finally, with the next exit coming up, I slid over and exited the highway.

Making the "u" turn to get back on the highway, I told my partner my intentions. He didn't say 'no' and in fact thought it might be a good idea.

It took a couple minutes, probably no more than 8 since I had passed him that I pulled past his vehicle, and turned my emergency flashers on. I exited the squad and found his buddy on the cell phone. "Is everything OK?" I asked.

"Ah, he is just feeling nauseated" replied his buddy. "You can check him out, if you want'. I asked him if he had bothered to call 911. He looked surprised at the suggestion and replied "No" as though he could not fathom why it would even have crossed his mind.

I approached the man hanging on the door, and got another "Red Flag" waving in my head. After a few years of this, you can spot a person in trouble from across a room, and he was looking particularly bad. His skin was pale, and sweaty. If you have never seen anyone in shock, I can't do it justice with prose.

Pack of smokes in his front shirt pocket. Head down, like a horse at the end of a race. Sweaty hair, pallor and a listless tone in his voice that his friend probably just thought was nausea. To me it was like a Klaxon going off.

He told me he was just dizzy, and had become so about 10 minutes prior to asking his friend to pull over. He had been there probably 20 minutes total.

Denied chest pain, shortness of breath or any obvious symptoms of heart attack.

This almost threw me off. Began to make me question whether I was just being hysterical or something, but yet the voice continued to yell an alarm in my ear "his heart is going".

Put him on our stretcher, and called our 911 center to commit us to this call.

Inside the truck, we went to work. My partner put in an IV and I cut his shirt off and did a 12-lead EKG. The 12 lead showed *nothing*. Perfectly normal.

Hmm, maybe I WAS overreacting..but yet, the voice kept at me.

We pulled into traffic, and at this point I was so committed to the idea he WAS sick with a heart problem, that despite his lack of obvious symptoms, I decided to drive a little further than the closest hospital, and go back to my home base Medical Center that had a Cardiac Catheterization lab.

I called the ER and basically said " I can't justify my opinion, but I think this guy needs a serious cardiac workup."

I hung up the cell phone, 40 second later my partner yelled up to me that he had just gone into a lethal heart dysrhythmia (Ventricular Tachycardia for you medical types).

Since he had the IV established, he quickly gave him a bolus of a cardiac medication that broke it, and put him back into a normal rhythm.

Rest of the story is pretty routine. Took him to the ER, transferred care.

Then it hit me.

If we had not turned around on the highway on nothing more than a hunch, he would have died. The closest 911 truck was 15 minutes away. His buddy had no idea he was in trouble, had no intention of calling 911, and in fact was walking away from the car with the cell phone while the sick guy was hanging out of the car. Probably didn't want to be near him if he threw up. We had him in the squad less than 12 minutes before he started the V-tach. If he had been by the edge of the road, he probably would have gone into cardiac arrest before anyone could help him.

Crazy story.

There was not one moment from the second I saw him from across two lanes of traffic for a fleeting instant that I didn't think he was in trouble. I just *Knew*. It made me do a huge loop in rush hour traffic on a busy highway against all 'logical conclusions', against the opinion of my partner, against his initial presentation symptoms.

Still a bit freaked out by it. I am accustomed to being dispatched to emergencies, but not by unseen forces telling me things I should not *know*.

Where does that information come from?

All I know is, I can't take credit for it.

You know what I mean. It just isn't as simple as the trite expression "It just was not his time"...

quote:

Originally posted by Windsor Dalrymple:

All I know is, I can't take credit for it.

Yes you can. And you deserve it.

I am thankful there are guys like you out there. There are too few people who are really good at their jobs like you.

Well Done.

Windsor: A fantastic job....If it weren't for folks like you Mary would not be alive today. Although she is no longer with me, she is living in a nursing/rehab facility in Jupiter, FL near her children,grand & great grandchildern,thanks to the trained EMS personel here in Cookeville, TN. Stand proud Windsor,you deserve it

Not a crazy story at all. Someone else said this better than I, but what it amounts to is that intuition is the unconscious sum of our experience. You've been there, done that, often enough that intuition told you this guy was in trouble. Lucky for him it was you who drove by. Luckier still that you responded to your intuition, and were in an ambulance equipped to save his life.

This song about covers if for me, you were his Angel that day..

This .mp3 has been moved due to the need to free up webhosting space. PM Rusty if you want the source (10+ MB)

I don't think it's weird - it's remarkable!

I would not be here today if i had not listened to my instinct/little voice in my head/guardian angel or whatever else you want to call while i was running around Vietnam. It wasn't always right but it was often enough that i never questioned or ignored it.

Windsor,
According to at least two internationally famous healers, one of whom was a former research scientist, there is a logical explanation of this phenomenon. Barbara Brennan describes it well in her stunning book "Hands of Light, Healing Through the Human energy Field". I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone seeking understanding of many of the so-called 'psychic" things. It isn't a 'light read', and should be read several times (along with doing the exercises at the end of each chapter), in order to attain true understanding of the material. she offers a 'new paradigm' in the introduction, which leads into the story of how she transited from research scientist to clairvoyant healer. She also founded the Barbara Brennan School of Healing Science, with branches in Florida and Europe. Barbara has worked very hard to promote her modalities as a science, replicable by others with proper training.

The other famous healer, Rosalyn Bruyere, takes part in ongoing research using her modalities with autisitic children. she has retired from healing work except for research, teaching, and working through her list of folks who have been waiting for healings since she stopped taking clients. Unfortunately, a number of those people will die before they reach the top due to their degree of illness and her limited time and energy working with clients. Her website is www.rosalynlbruyere.com.
She was one of B. Brennan's mentors during the aforementioned transition from physicist to healer. Barbara's website is www.barbarabrennan.com.
Whether one believes the information presented in 'Hands of Light' or totally dismisses it, it does offer a logical explanation for perceptions 'beyond' "normal".

wishing everyone health, joy, prosperity, and time to enjoy all of it...
geoffrey

Bottom line is God uses those who make themselves available.

How many times have we as parents seemed to anticipate our kids needing us. I certainly don't think we as mere humans have the power but the power is available if you are open to it. And like the old Stu Hamblin hymn says... "It is No Secret What God Can Do"

Dave, that's the secret...true Healers have learned to open themselves to being a tool for the Divinity to use in creating improved health for the client. By the end of my 4 years of training in this field, I came to understand it is NOT 'me' "doing" healing work, but rather God working through me when "i" am able to "step aside" and let it happen 'through me'.
Often medical personnel have learned to do some form of this, and many people "have the gift", the 'healing touch', innately; from childhood on. Learning those skills is as much unlearning belief systems that say it isn't possible as it is learning how to put ones' self into the state of awareness referred to as "Healership". Due to conflicting belief systems, many of us have to learn that such things are not only possible, but can happen with relative ease, given a real chance.
I think we agree that God works in ways mysterious to we mortals, and miracles abound if we choose to look carefully and recognize them as such...like Windsor's experience the other day. for the ailing fellow it WAS a miracle that his needs were perceived by a passerby before they manifested fully. as a result he is still alive now.

GOOD JOB Windsor!

Nice going Windsor, from another first responder. Obviously that unexplained 6th sense saved a guy's life, and I'm sure made his buddy think twice after the fact! I agree with Dave and others that you were put in that situation for that specific reason... something that probably happens to all of us often, but it's usually just not that obvious!