Have you ever been tested

[silatman]

Reading the man v's leopard thread got me thinking.

We all hope that if it comes down to it we would stand our ground and face whatever it is that confronts us but in the cold hard light of reality sometimes things dont go to plan.

My question then is this Have you ever been Tested?
Have you ever had that life and death decision thrust upon you and had to REALLY confront it one way or the other, and did you react like you always thought that you would.

It could be a test in any form, confronting an animal, being first on an accident scene, saved a person from drowning, whatever, the point being that you were taken so far out of your comfort zone that after the expirience you personally knew whether or not you passed.


I'll start the ball rolling, I was driving a work vehicle and came around a bend to find a fresh accident, two cars were involved one (a 4WD) was lying on its side in the middle or the road the other ( a small sedan) was off on the verge upright with the front end completely folded up to the windshield. inside the 4WD was two elderly people who were both conscious and unhurt, the sedan also had two passengers a young lady (driver) and her boyfriend. The boyfriend was going into shock fast but was unhurt physically the girl on the otherhand was trapped by the dash and steering wheel had a nasty leg wound and minor cuts and scrapes to her head.
I told my offsider to grab the fire extinguisher first aid kit and any jackets we had, I rang the ambulance and by this stage other people had started to arrive. I directed some people to stop traffic, some to look after the elderly couple and others just to stand back when the sedan caught fire.
The only extinguisher we had was a halon type which puts out a fire by displacing the oxygen so its not the best thing to use inside a car but with the woman trapped it was either let her burn or resusitate her if she passed out, not a good choice either way.
I extinguished the fire from the outside as much as possible then sprayed the dash from the inside but the poor women still ended up with third degree burns from the radiant heat. By this time the ambulance and police had arrived and took control which I was extremely grateful for.
Bottom line I knew as I drove away that I had not paniced and done what I thought needed to be done at the time and the episode taught me more about myself than anything that I had ever expirienced.

 

[swiftpete]

i was riding my motorbike when i was in thailand and this guy came round the corner way too fast and plowed straight into a concrete ditch at the side of the road. I turned back and lifted the bike off him and pulled him out the ditch. He had several injuries, the worst was a compound fracture of his foot, the bones were sticking straight through and they had caught on the soil and general **** in the ditch and got covered. Seeing his foot nearly made me sick but i helped him out the ditch, flagged down a taxi and put him inside with his keys etc. Because he was in shock he was behaving like a small boy, had to tell him what to do, he tried to put his shoe on over the broken bones in his foot but couln't get it on cos it was snagging. That was pretty disgusting but when i told him to stop, he did do it.

Got him sent straight to hospital, there was blood pumping everywhere i got pretty covered myself! When the shock wore off he must've been in massive pain, but i'm glad i saw him crash and was on the scene straightaway, if he'd been lying in the ditch, out of sight of the road, by himself for ages it would've been a nightmare for him.

 

[TonyU]

Several times. It comes with the territory.
Unfortunately it's not something I would not like to put on a forum.
If we ever meet, then we'll talk about over some cold ones.

 

[silatman]

Several times. It comes with the territory.
Unfortunately it's not something I would not like to put on a forum.
If we ever meet, then we'll talk about over some cold ones.

Sounds to me like you passed brother.

 

[swiftpete]

Several times. It comes with the territory.
Unfortunately it's not something I would not like to put on a forum.
If we ever meet, then we'll talk about over some cold ones.

Putting it like that made me chuckle straight away, i can imagine you in a clint eastwood style outfit, saying that, then pulling your collar up high and turning the other way.

 

[theletch1]

Was pulling a flatbed of lumber into Butler, Pennsylvania. A young man (early 20s) in a Camaro was evidently in a hurry to get somewhere, tried to pass on the double line and hit a pickup truck head on. The car behind the pick up slapped it in the rear end, the boy driving the Camaro was ejected FROM THE PASSENGER SIDE of his vehicle. I set the brake on my truck and ran to the boy on the ground, as I knelt beside him he bled out...nothing I could do for him. The woman in the car behind the pickup was shaken but otherwise ok. The man in the pickup had broken his ankle and was jammed behind the steering wheel. His engine had caught fire and he was screaming for someone to get him out. I knew I shouldn't move him in case of a spinal cord injury but the fire under the hood was getting worse. On a flat bed trailer you carry a "cheater" bar for tightening straps and chains. I grabbed the cheater bar, sent another passer by to the cab of my truck to get my extenguisher. I was able to pry the door open, cut the guys seat belt and ease him out of his truck and help him to safety. Bruised ribs, a gash on the forehead and the ankle injury were the extent for him. EMS arrived, and took care of every thing else. The pickup burned to a crisp.

There have been other times that I've been tested. Even though I know that I've been tested and passed each time I still have to just do what has to be done without thinking about it. If I stop to think about it I'm never sure that I'll pass the next test.

(Oh, yeah, and the car that the Camaro was initially trying to pass? They just drove around the wreck and never looked back. :idunno: )

 

[TonyU]

Putting it like that made me chuckle straight away, i can imagine you in a clint eastwood style outfit, saying that, then pulling your collar up high and turning the other way.

LOL, not quite. I am not and never will be as cool as Clint Eastwood.

 

[TonyU]

Sounds to me like you passed brother.

Thanks,
It's not as ominous, mysterious, or exciting as it sounds it's just as an LEO certain things in written form can come back and bite you in the rear.

 

[evenflow1121]

No, but my dad sure had. While my dad was in college, he had a job at a convenience store, and while working the late shift a guy came in with a gun and demanded the money. My dad has a bb in Judo (I dont have any experience in that particular style), and was able to handle the guy. I always liked that story, he stood his ground, of course he knew what he was doing. Gun defense is a very serious thing, if you are not too sure how, better to give the guy the money and live to see another day.

 

[MA-Caver]

Several times in several different ways. Too many to even go into here.
Everything from arriving at the scene/and or witnessing of a car crash and putting my first-aid/first-responder training to work to fighting a guy who wanted to seriously kill me and putting him out long enough to get away.

What I learned is that no-one will actually know what they're capable of doing until it is thrust upon them. It's a humbling experience.

 

[jkdhit]

i have a few stories i can recall..

last year in october i was leaving my girlfriends house. i was talking on my cellphone to a friend involving my college club. for some reason it was only about 7 but very dark. as i walked, this stranger came up beside me and asked me for the time. i didnt have a watch so i asked my friend on the phone, told him the time, and kept walking. as i was walking, he looked around and saw no one wear nearby except the cars driving by so he told me to give him my wallet and phone. as he reached to pull something out of his pocket, i took the opportunity and punched him in the face and immobilized him on the ground. after i knew for sure he was down, i found the nearest people and had told them what happened and to call the police. as we were heading back to the scene, we saw him getting up and start running away. luckily i had a good view of his face and was able to pick out his picture on the computer and they took him in a couple of days later.

in april, i was also leaving my girlfriends house and heading for the train station. as i was walking, i saw this guy run up behind a woman and started punching her in her back. i thought they were just playing around because she didn't scream. after a second i saw the expression on her face as she tried to get away and he repeated it again so i attacked him and called the police for her. i got into the college newspaper for this

last month, my grandfather passed away and we were at his wake. i had noticed that my grandmother wasnt crying anymore so i looked over and saw she was unconscious. everyone was just screaming her name and crying. no one called 911 or attempted to help her so i started to pick her up and carry her out. the other person who was helping me was of no use, they were also just trying to wake her up so he added to the weight. i told my aunt and the other guy to grab her arms, then i lifted her up and carried her into the lobby. still no one called 911, so i instructed different people to do so. luckily she ended up being alright, she passed out because she hadn't eaten since he passed away (almost a week) but she took her medication. the paramedics had her eat some insulin gel which made her feel a lot better but they took her to the hospital just to be sure and that's we found out it was because of low blood sugar.

 

[rupton]

Once when I was in the Marine Corps a friend and I witnessed a mugger grab a woman’s purse right in front of us and high tail it. We both chased him down and incapacitated him. In retrospect this was a pretty stupid thing to do to recover a purse. The second time (also in the Marines) I witnessed a man pull a knife on a friend and his girl, right in the middle of D.C. I walked up to the man and talked him down without realizing I stepped right in front of a policeman getting ready to draw down on him. The cop told me this was pretty stupid (stepping in front of a policeman preparing to draw his gun on someone) there were, of course, some other expletives about stupid jarheads etc. by the officer. I had to whole-heartedly agree after the fact . However the scariest incident in my life was when I had a gun pulled on me. I won't go into details because you can probably tell from the pattern it had to do with youth, my stupidity and the Marine Corps . I realized after the guy pulled the gun and fired a couple of shots into the air from many yards away that he was mostly posturing and that the small caliber of the weapon and his drunkenness probably weren't a threat to my life but prudence told me the best place to be was as far as my long legs could carry me and I ran a sprint that would’ve made Jessie Owens proud . In the fifteen years since my life has been pretty uneventful which suites me just fine.