Have you ever had a phone call from a family member who says, “Want to hear what happened to me today?” Sure you have. Let me tell you about mine.
Our daughter Amy called us this weekend with a question like that. Naturally we said, “Sure.” We were not prepared for what came afterward.
On Saturday she and her husband Tom were outdoors in downtown Chicago, showing a first-time visiting friend (Kim) some of the sights. They were walking down a street with one of Chicago’s elevated trains overhead, when from directly across the street they heard a loud CRASH!
The looked, expecting to see a fender-bender. They noticed a parked vehicle with the top crushed in, and glass scattered around. Then they saw the body on the crushed-in top!
Kim, having had first aid training, immediately ran to see if she could help. Tom grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911. Amy’s first thought was that the person had jumped or fallen from the El platform (there was a stop at that point in the El.) Then she realized that the car was much too damaged for the fall to have been from only 20 feet or so.
When Kim got to the man on the car, she was amazed that he was conscious. He was bleeding heavily from one wrist, so she grabbed a sweatshirt from inside the smashed car (all the windows were broken out) and tried to stop the flow of blood. The man started to move, but movement caused great pain and Kim convinced him to be still.
Moments later, with the EMS on the way, a girl ran from the front of the building entrance just beside the incident and tried to fight through the crowd towards the man. Amy overheard her tell a policeman who had come to the scene and was waiting for the paramedics that she and the man had been on the roof of the building talking when he had jumped.
Amy looked up.
The building is twenty stories tall!
I don’t know if the man lived or died. Kim was able to ascertain that his name was Luke, and the next day’s paper had a brief article saying that a 25 year old man was taken to a local hospital in critical condition after falling onto a parked car from a 20-story building in downtown. If he lives, it will be miraculous.
Amy, Tom and Kim went back to Amy’s apartment where they cleaned the blood from Kim’s leather jacket.
Welcome to Chicago, Kim.
5 comments:
OMG! What a shock! Kim may have saved that man's life. Kudos to Tom for quick action, too. I hope you'll hear word of the man's condition.
All the best to you and yours, John.
I commend them for being able to help. Had I seen that happen, I might have fainted dead away in the street.
(I posted the meme)
oh my.. WOW! I can't imagine what i'd be feeling at that point. Just WOW!
WOW! That he even survived at all is a miracle in the first place. I pray that little girl is not traumatized in the long term by what happened. My heart goes out to her. My heart goes out to your daughter, her hubby and their friend for witnessing the event and kudos for their bravery and levelheadedness in being in that kind of a first responder situation.
You're invited to come on over to my blog and participate in the "Ask Nic" post that is up today. You have a chance to ask me anything you want, um within reason (LOL!), and have me answer it. :)
That is not a pleasant incident to witness and they were all very brave for having attended to the man.
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