between life and death.  Not sure if I told you about the 53 year old lady that called the other day because she couldn’t breath….she was home alone in the country…her husband had gone to town to get groceries and run some errands….she had a seizure and when she came out of it was having difficulty breathing….where I came in.  I got EMS started..she wanted to stay on the line with me…said it helped having someone there because it took her mind off of it…a few minutes into the call and approximately 11 minutes before the ambulance arrived, she told me she thought she was going to pass out and seconds later she passed out and that was it.  She was on life support for a couple of days but I knew she had been down too long for her to come back with any quality of life.  Stranger to stranger – life to life – one is left standing.  Ya.  I’m a professional, yup, have been doing this job for  almost 24 years and every time this happens, I say a prayer and grieve for this persons’ family…each one has an affect on my life…stranger to stranger. 

Instructed a man today giving CPR to his wife.  They had returned home from the doctor and after he got her settled, he put the car in the garage…on his return to the house he found his wife on the floor unresponsive and not breathing.  This time the ambulance was close…she’s at the hospital now with a pulse and life support.  I grieve for this woman’s family…the pain they are going thru tonight – they have no idea that there is someone in the universe tonight that is thinking about them…….stranger to stranger. 

Never underestimate your impact on someone’s life; friend to friend, acquaintenance to acquaintenance, stranger to stranger.