Line man
I was in my Gramps back yard near Spokane , he had nine acres , I heard an unusual noise , I walked towards where the noise came from , I walked along / under the power lines , I crossed into the neighbors property . I had crossed most of the way across the neighbors place when I saw laying on the ground under a power pole a lineman , he was not moving . An electric company truck was not far away . It was obvious to me that he had been shocked and had fallen from the pole . I didn’t have any training for helping him directly so I didn’t even think of doing anything for him myself . I ran back to my Gramps place and called emergency , they asked me where the guy was and I told them best as I could , he was up an unmarked nameless dirt road . After the phone call I went out to the spot where the dirt road hit the road the emergency people would be coming up . I could hear them . I stood on the side of the road with my arm out pointing up the dirt road . A big fire truck came up the road with lights and sirens going . They slowed to a stop and asked if the guy was up the dirt road I was pointing towards . I said yes and they turned and went up the dirt road . I stayed there because I could hear that others were coming . I have no idea what happened to the line man , I don’t know if he lived or died .
Little boy with torn open leg
There was a kid screaming behind the apartment building I was living in . I went out to see what was going on . The kid was on the other side of a concrete drainage canal , he was running down hill and and somehow tore open his leg . He said he did not want to die , I said that he was not going to die but that he was going to have a real good scar .
Woman in Laguna Beach
I was laying down on my towel reading a magazine at 1000 steps beach when a woman started screaming , I looked to see what was going on , I saw a woman doing a classic water thrashing / screaming for help display . She was maybe 20 feet off the beach . The sand drops away steeply at that beach , at 20 feet off shore she was in deep water . I ran over , jumped into the water , swam out to her and put my arm around her and swam her back to shore , I pulled her all the way up onto the sand and sat her down . I moved around to face her and she said “You were touching my breast! ”
Fisherman in Santa Cruz
I was surfing at steamer lane and I had caught a wave that had taken me far , to get back out to the point and warm up , I got out and walked back towards the point , when I was near the lighthouse a man came up to me , he was agitated about something but he was talking Vietnamese I think . I didn’t know what he was saying or wanting , he motioned me to come with him , we walked over to the other side of the point , the side away from the normal surfing spot .
I saw that there was a guy in the water , he was vertical in the water and his head was out of the water , he was not swimming at all , he was just motionless . He was not thrashing or screaming or anything . He didn’t look to be upset or anything to me . I thought that it was really nothing , I see people in the water all the time . No big deal . Then a wave came and the guy didn’t react , he didn’t take any action , the wave broke right on him and he was not doing anything about it .
Right at that moment I understood that he didn’t know how to swim , that he was not able to get himself out of the water . So I switched from thinking no big deal to full speed ahead damn the torpedoes mode . I ran back the along the point to a place where I could get onto the beach , I climbed down the short cliff to get to the sand , as I was running toward the water I tossed my surfboard aside , when I got a ways into the water I dove forward to swim to the guy , unfortunately the big waves had moved the sand around there , where there was deep water in the past was now very shallow water . When I dove into the water it was maybe a foot deep and I did a face plant into the sand . D’oh !!! I picked myself up and went out to the guy , grabbed him and swam him back to the beach . When he was sitting there I asked him what happened , he told me that he was fishing with his friend and that he had fallen off the rocks . He said he wanted to go to the hospital , I didn’t think there was anything wrong with him , he was talking , he didn’t seem to be hurt but he wanted to go so someone called for an ambulance . I hung around and the guy was taken away in an ambulance . I was still down on the beach when two guys in blue uniforms came down the cliff , they came to me and asked if I was the one who rescued the guy , I said I was and they asked me for my name , they asked in a way that made me feel uncomfortable , so I said that I would not give them my name . They went back to cliff to climb back up but they could not , so I went over a gave them each a boost up .
A few weeks later there were a pair of girls out in the water near steamer lane , they had wetsuits on and they were sitting on surfboards but they were far far from where the waves were breaking , they could sit there all day and night and never get close to a breaking wave . I paddled over to them to see if they were ok , when I got close to them I saw that they were wearing make up and jewelry . They were not surfers . They were a pair playing make believe or something . I asked them if they were ok , if they needed help or anything , they said they were fine so I paddled back to the waves . I looked over to them every now and then to see if they were having any trouble . They just sat there , they were not in anyones way . I was done for the day and they were still there . A few weeks later on the front page of the local paper was a surfer getting the key to the city from a mayor for saving the two girls .
Local guy in Honolulu
I was laying on the towel reading a magazine at Ka’alawai beach when someone started yelling ,
this is a nice quiet local kine neighborhood beach , no one makes noise like that . Its rude . I look to see who is being rude , its a guy out in the water half way out to the reef facing the beach . He is yelling something to someone on the beach . The water is flat , the waves are stopped by the reef , the bottom is sand , its a wonderful place for swimming . When I look to see who is making all this noise I look to see who he is yelling at , nobody seems to be interested in him . He stoppes yelling and I go back to my magazine , a short while later he starts yelling again , I look at him again , he is still out there and facing the beach . Behind him on the reef are four or five people standing . The top of the reef is clear of the water . The people on the reef are not interacting with the guy in the water . He stops yelling and I go back to my magazine . A little while later he starts yelling again , I look up again and a thought crosses my mind that maybe he is yelling for help . I get up and run down the beach so that when I enter the water the distance I will need to swim will be the least distance possible . I swim out to him and ask if he needs help , he tells me that he can’t swim . He is a huge local guy , he is probably three times my weight , I grab him and swim him back toward the beach , when the water gets so shallow that I have contact with the sand while swimming I tell the guy to stand up and walk , he says no so I walk along and drag him all the way to the beach and pull him up onto the sand . He does not help . I asked him what happened and he tells me that the people on the reef are his friends and that they had walked out to the reef at low tide and that when he was walking back from the reef the tide must have come in cause he could not walk back in the deep water .
Wolfgang
I called up Wolfgang , I told him that I was going to come over to his place to pull the head off his jeep . He said he was not feeling well and that I should not come over to work on his jeep that day . I could hear that he was in great pain . I told him I was coming over to see him , he said I should not , I told him I was going to anyway . I drove to Waikiki and went to the place he was living at , he started telling me about the pain he was feeling , pain from head to toe on the left side , I knew that was bad , I suggested that he let me drive him to a doctor , he said no , doctors will not do anything , that he just wants to stay in bed and rest . I press him to go with me , I don’t tell him what I think is going on , I just keep on saying that we should get in the car and find him a doctor . He finally gives in and I end up driving him to the emergency room . They take him into surgery and fix up his aortic aneurysm .