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People Share Tips That Could Save A Life One Day

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The world is figuratively and literally on fire (depending on where you live.) While it might be safer to stay inside, hide out from all this madness, grab a pint, and wait for all this to blow over, but not everyone can.

If you're heading out into the great, crazy unknown then perhaps its best if you arm yourself with a bit of knowledge of what to do in case someone's life is on the line.

Reddit user, u/Voorhees81, wanted to know about:

What is a tip that could one day save someones life?

Let's Start Off Strong

NEVER mix ammonia and bleach.

Lots of cleaning products contain one or the other. Read labels before mixing.

gr8p8pe

The gas it produces destroys lung tissue and I think its called [chloramine] gas, was used in world war 1 by the German army and killed a lot of soldiers and destroyed a lot of ppls lungs

pete306

Legs Over And Stretch

If your car ends upside down and the belt is tight because of your weight, you may not able to release the buckle. To release your weight pulling on the belt, put your feet on the edge of the windscreen and roof (remember you're upside down, so you lower your legs!!) and try to stretch your legs. This will just enough release the pressure on the belt to release the buckle.

robert_roo

Google It After You're Done Reading This

If someone passes out in what we would consider a "confined space" don't go in after them. Call 911.

If you don't know what classifies as a confined space please Google it now.

Finiouss

Ready For This One? Do As Little As Possible.

If you ever fall off a ship/ferry at sea and were lucky enough to be spotted - don't try to swim your way to safety. The more you try to swim, the lesser the chances of survival. Just try to keep afloat and conserve energy (and body heat) while rescue team do what they're supposed to.

Unless you are in hypothermic waters, the best bet always is to stay afloat without trying to swim to somewhere. This information about falling overboard, hypothermia and conditions, survival at sea etc are based on my own experience of 12 years sailing on merchant ships

trendz19

Maybe Not Something For Your Everyday Use, But Probably Still Important To Jot Down

If someone drinks cyanide, give them a bottle of Iron (II) Chloride to drink.

It will replace the CN molecule and give them a chance of survial..

This is what they had on standby in the old days of mouth-pipetting.

arabidopsis

Two Bits Of Advice Here

If you are ever caught in a rip tide, swim parallel to the shore line and perpendicular to the current. If you swim into it you will die. If you let it take you out to sea and aren't a strong swimmer, you will die.

If you aren't a strong swimmer, stay the f-ck out of the ocean.

DahlonegaGA

Take Care Of Yourself Before Helping Others

Always guarantee your own safety before helping someone in a first aid situation! It might seem obvious, but it is overlooked way too often.

For example: when someone is unconscious in a closed space and there are no direct clues to the cause, always assume there is CO and the room isn't safe to enter. Try to ventilate the room and get the person out of there as quick as possible, but don't risk your life by staying in there for too long!

burm2

Don't Worry About Other People

If someone is making you feel uncomfortable, no matter what or why, you don't have to justify leaving the situation or find a reason first.

Being nice gets you killed.

deathbotly

As a Trans girl who lived on the streets for 6 months, ALWAYS trust your gut feeling

The_Mad_Socks

No, But Seriously, STREET SMARTS.

Dont EVER go to a second location if someone is trying to force you

Once someone does that, your chances of dying go astronomically high

Get TF outta there. Scream, holler, do what u gotta do

t6678426

I am 35 years old, and I am still terrified of secondary location.

eldritch_candy

Create A Seal

If someone has been stabbed whether it's you or someone else and the knife has been pulled out, place and hold a credit card on the site of the wound, because a credit card is thin, it creates a tight seal around the hole, stopping blood loss more effectively than any other everyday item you have on you

LSalem2

You Know, A Positive Use For Technology

Snapchat has a location sender. I urge my female friends to send me (or someone close to them e.g. parents) their location when they are meeting up with a guy for a first date or when they are going out drinking. Bonus points if they send new locations when the leave and/or arrive at the next spot. That way if something goes bad I have a time and location at which they were last safe.

Filligrees_daddy

Keep It Warm

Never underestimate the dangers of swimming in cold water without a wetsuite. Jumping or diving into cold water or rapid change in temperature in your body will cause you to go into shock and drown. If you have to swim in water below 60 degrees then enter slowly.

road22

GUYS. LEAVE. IT. IN.

If you've been stabbed, do not pull out the weapon, as painful as it is. It is most likely the only thing keeping you from bleeding out. Call an ambulance if you can, and let the professionals handle the rest.

Lunar_Wolf770

Okay, Yeah, But No, Really.

Avoid Karen's. [It] is a battle you cannot win.

depressed_ghost420

Unsure? Be Around Other People.

Always meet in a public place

snowmanseeker

And if you run away, don't run down narrow alleys and paths to try to "lose them". You're only isolating yourself from the public.

Run as fast as you can to the largest other group of people you can find. There is safety in witnesses.

ninjakaji

Any Longer Can Be Harmful Rather Than Helpful

If you have been driving for a while and you find yourself or your mate, in the car starting to micro sleep. Pull over immediately and get some rest (~ 20 minute power nap with an alarm to wake you). Your/their reward is being alive and not wrapped around some tree.

Ext_Fat32

Wheel's Forward

When you're waiting to make a left turn, keep the wheels facing forward until you're ready to go. If you get rear-ended, it can make the difference between just a fender-bender or getting launched into oncoming traffic and getting t-boned. They used to teach this in driver's ed, but I don't think my kids ever heard this from their instructors.

FatFreddysCat

Leave That Stuff On The TV

Do NOT do anything you see Bear Grylls do on TV if you're stuck in an actual survival situation.

Unless there are extreme circumstances that require you to keep moving or hiding, it is best to stay in place and use resources in your immediate area to build shelter and a signal fire.

Search parties will always look for you in the last known place you were, so stay put. Venturing around can make you more lost and it usually costs more calories than you can replenish while on the move.

It may be gross, but the best source of food you will have if lost in the woods will be bugs. Overturn a log, lift rocks, and collect bugs. They are almost pure protein and you will need protein in your body more than almost anything in order to stay alive.

Wasting energy hunting animals that you aren't experienced hunting will cost more calories than you can replenish when eating them. If you don't have a gun or bow already handy, the process of creating a weapon to hunt with, combined with the hunt itself, is extremely energy costly.

Eat. Bugs.

Find. Water.

Stay. Put.

Build. Fires.

Atlas_Black

Don't Worry About Snitches. Worry About The Stitches.

If you or a friend need urgent medical attention, be honest about any drink or drugs that have been taken. Doctors, nurses and paramedics are concerned with saving your life, not snitching on you. An emergency situation is not the time to be protecting your reputation.

mronion82

It's also not the time to be embarrassed about anything. I promise doctors have seen it before. They do not care that you take viagra at 25, they just care that they won't prescribe you nitrates on top of that for your heart condition because combining those two can cause deadly low blood pressure. If they ask you what drugs you take, be honest. If they ask you about a specific drug, be 100% honest because there's a reason they're asking and it's your life on the line.

Threspian

Set It Up

Write a message in your predictive text. Whenever I type 911 on my phone it autocorrects to this:

"Something has gone wrong. I'm at the address I sent you earlier and/ or with the person I told you I would be with. Please call the police immediately. This is an automated message I pre-wrote and made a shortcut for. I am sending this because I am not okay. Please send help. I love you."

Quick and easy to send to a loved one when you are in danger and cannot call anyone. I used 911 specifically because it isn't the emergency number for my country, so it's something easy to type but that I am very unlikely to. I highly highly highly recommend this to anyone.

chngminxo

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College Professors Share Their Funniest 'I Don't Know How You Made It Out Of High School' Experiences

Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay

Now that college has become a standard requirement for so many jobs and careers, there is a massive push by high schools to get their graduating students accepted and enrolled at an undergraduate college.

On the whole, that's undoubtedly a great thing. A more educated workforce will be prepared to solve the most complex issues facing human beings in the next several decades.

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911 Operators Describe The Most Unnerving Calls They've Ever Received

Image by Gianni Crestani from Pixabay

*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.

The person on the other end of a 911 call has a truly remarkable job.

For those who don't play that professional role, we hope to never encounter the 911 call interaction. But if we do find ourselves making that call, the moment is an anomaly in our lives.

The chaos, the panic, the racing heart, and the desperation are all emotions we, ideally, don't experience on a regular basis.

But for the operator on the other end, our call is one in a long line of calls they've received all day, and all the workdays before that one.

It's difficult to imagine being embedded in those uniquely urgent, emergency moments all the time.

Some Redditors who are on the other end of that call shared their experiences on the job.

WhimsicalxxButcher asked, "911 dispatchers what has been your most creepy/unnerving call?"

For a few, the most unnerving moments were the calm callers.

There was something just so eerie about how level-headed the faceless human being on the other end could be through such a desperate, tragic moment.

Almost Clinical 

"I had a friend who worked as a 911 dispatcher and he always said the worst call he ever had was a ~20 year old kid who committed suicide by mixing a bunch of chemicals together in his car to produce hydrogen sulfide gas."

"He said that the most unnerving part was hearing him calmly listing off the chemicals, the type of gas produced, and the effects of hydrogen sulfide on the body (namely the almost instant death it causes at high concentrations)."

"He ended the call by providing the address of the parking lot he was in and saying that nobody should approach the vehicle without hazmat equipment."

"Apparently after that there was a whooshing sound as he dumped the last chemical into the mix, and then the line went dead silent aside for a quiet fizzing noise."

"I know that call screwed him up because he almost never talks about stuff that happens to him on the job. He quit a few months later to go into construction management, and frankly I can't blame him."

-- iunoyou

Planned Out 

"A woman called me, saying she was going to kill herself. She was gassing herself. Gave me her name & address then said she was just going to lie down and 'go to sleep.' And stopped responding to me."

"I kept the line open, trying to get her to speak to me, and eventually heard officers forcing their way in to find her body. I guess she just wanted someone to find her body."

-- mozgw4

Before It Set In 

"When I got a call from a 6 year old who got home from school and laid down to take a nap with his dad. His dad never woke up."

"The kid was so calm when calling it broke my heart."

"I ended up leaving dispatch shortly after. I was good at compartmentalizing the job for the year I was doing it, but it would've broken me in the long run."

-- tasha7712

Other 911 operators were unfortunate enough to receive a call from the very last person they wanted to hear from: a loved one.

These dispatchers' unique position gave them the unexpected access to a family member or friend at their most dire moments.

No More of That 

"My family member is a long time first responder, and 'retired' into doing dispatch. He heard the address (someone else was taking the call) and realized it was his daughter's house."

"He rushed over there just in time to see them wheeling her body out. Overdose."

"Five months later, he was called to his ex-wife's place because his grandson (son of the daughter who recently passed) had his door locked, lights on, but wasn't responding to his grandma."

"He broke the door down and found him deceased in bed. Overdose."

"He's very stoic after years of all sorts of traumatic situations but my heart hurts whenever I think of what all of this must have felt like. Like sand through your fingers."

-- bitchyhouseplant

Knowing the Address

"Not me, but my grandma. I was sitting in the dispatch office, (very small one only 2 dispatchers including my grandma) but she put out a dispatch that there was a gun shot from my best friends address."

"My heart sank to my stomach and broke later that day. He committed suicide."

-- OntaiSenpuu

When it Happened 

"My uncle passing away. Worked as a small town dispatcher for a year or so. Had a bunch of messed up stuff happen on shift, but this call came in in the still hours of the night. Small town, so not many calls after midnight."

"I answered and recognized the name and address on caller id. Aunt was in a frenzy so didn't recognize my voice. I remained calm and got ems and fire rolling to them, but by my aunt's own words he was already blue."

"I went thru debriefing and mandated therapy for a couple other things that happened, but never really talked to anyone about this. I just try not to think about it."

"That was the call I figured out I needed to find a different job."

-- dangitjon

Finally, some simply had a front row seat to sudden tragedy.

These operators were flies on the wall when disaster struck. They never asked to witness what they witnessed, but sometimes that came with the territory.

A Holiday Tragedy 

"My mom is a 911 dispatcher. Early on she said one Christmas Eve while working she got a call from an elderly lady who's husband had just collapsed(and died) from a heart attack and in the background Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas music was playing on blast."

"The lady was screaming and crying and begging for her husband to wake up but my mom could hear his gurgling in his last breathes. She doesn't listen to or watch Alvin and the chipmunks since."

-- Blueflowerbluehair

What is it About Christmas?

"Christmas night. 911 call with crying child on the other end. A neighbor had run her car over her mom during a domestic."

"The mom crawled to the porch bleeding and the child saw the car coming back. I had her hide quietly in a closet with the cordless phone."

"The 10 year old child was crying and screamed that she hated Christmas. She was afraid of the police when they got there."

"I kept her on the phone until she felt safe enough to give the phone to an officer. I almost fainted after that call was over. Had nightmares for a while."

-- 2FunBoofer

Close to Home 

"Not a dispatcher but I handle radio communications for the Coast Guard. One night I was on the radio and got a call from an 11 year old kid whose boat had started to sink. He was out with his dad and 6 year old brother."

"They had been hit by another boat and his father got knocked unconscious. I remember the entire conversation up until the radio had gone underwater."

"They ended up finding his dad floating on his back alive but the two boys didn't make it. That one really fu**ed with me because my two littlest brothers were around the same age as the youngest."

-- HIRSH2243

A Horrible Clock 

"Another one that stays with me was the man who called in. It was the anniversary of his adult son having hanged himself. He'd now come home to find his wife had done the same."

"That date is always going to be a black day for him."

-- mozgw4


If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/

Again, we hope you never have to use the 911 call in your life. Nobody wants to be involved in a sudden emergency or a tragic incident.

But hopefully, if you do, an operator like one of these thoughtful, sensitive Redditors is on the other end.

emergency

Former 'Gifted' Students Explain Where They Ended Up In Life

Image by Nguyen Dinh Lich from Pixabay

When I was moving on from middle school to high school my parents had me tested for the "gifted" program. By some miracle I passed and was accepted. And then I turned it down. Everyone was irritated. "This will pave the way for any college you want! You'll learn so much!" his path will set you up for life!" Every adult tried valiantly to sell me this merchandise but in my gut I just wasn't buying it. So I "settled" a level below, merely advanced classes. And upon reflection... it was the best choice I ever made.

Redditor u/dauntlessdaisy was wondering how far some in life got by asking... For those of you who were considered "gifted" in school, what are you doing with your life now?
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People Explain Which Things Should Always Be Kept In A Car In Case Of Emergency

Image by Markus Spiske from Pixabay

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