Armchair Anonymous: Heroic

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[3] Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Anonymous.

[4] You did it.

[5] Two in a row.

[6] Today, we're going to talk to people who responded to the prompt.

[7] Have you ever saved anyone's life?

[8] Yes.

[9] And we met some real, awesome people, yeah.

[10] And look, let's be honest, this is an episode about people nearly dying.

[11] So if that's something that's sensitive and triggering to you, this might not be the one for you.

[12] Also, no one dies in this episode.

[13] That's right.

[14] But also, but if you have a kid, I can imagine if you're a new parent, the one of the stories is just a little, maybe might be overwhelming to hear.

[15] So those are my warnings.

[16] You do a great job in these intros of making no one want to listen.

[17] I couldn't agree more.

[18] I'm like talking people out of listening.

[19] Why is that?

[20] I don't know, but it's a great episode, and these are awesome people.

[21] So I think you should listen.

[22] But either they're like, you know, these episodes either have some purvy stuff or some poopy stuff.

[23] So it just feels like warnings are required.

[24] But I guess maybe I give one blast all warning like this show's dicey.

[25] True.

[26] Would that work?

[27] Yeah, but it's okay to give warnings.

[28] It's just, you're great.

[29] You should still listen.

[30] Yeah, they're fantastic.

[31] But also, don't listen if you're a person who loves anyone.

[32] And if you value human life, this one's not for you.

[33] No, you'll love it.

[34] Check in with us in a few weeks, because I don't even think you're going to like the next two episodes.

[35] So let's touch base around Thanksgiving.

[36] If you love humans, you'll really like this because there's some exemplary ones.

[37] Really good job with the word exemplary.

[38] Please enjoy Armchair Anonymous.

[39] All times.

[40] Come and go.

[41] Take them slow.

[42] You got to know, I'm going to keep on shining.

[43] Hello.

[44] Hello.

[45] Well, hello there.

[46] You guys hear me okay?

[47] We hear you really well, but naturally all we want to hear is you tickle that six string behind you.

[48] That's my curated background.

[49] So you save someone's life, maybe multiple lives we don't know yet.

[50] You know, there could be lives I've saved that I don't know about, too.

[51] That's right.

[52] I'll just say right off the bat here, too.

[53] This was a group effort.

[54] This happened 16 years ago.

[55] My two really good buddies, John, and Ron already great already perfect yeah yeah and you learned to never refer to them as Ron and John because then you think Ron John surf shop right is that accurate exactly if you go like my two buddies Ron John you're like oh yeah they were getting really into offroading they've been wanting to take me out and finally I was like all right let's go out are we talking trail riding rock crawling high speed desert racing style what what do we what kind mostly off road trails but my friend John had a Wrangler, T .J. And so he was getting into some rock climbing and stuff like that.

[56] But this particular weekend, we decided to bring the kids.

[57] So we decided to all go out together.

[58] We had two vehicles.

[59] This is like about 60 miles north of Phoenix.

[60] We're going through this canyon.

[61] There's a little stream we have to go through.

[62] The suburban had some trouble.

[63] The axle broke.

[64] Uh -oh.

[65] You know, we're out there for a while trying to figure out what to do.

[66] Had to leave it.

[67] Got to come back and get it later.

[68] So Ron and his son pile into the Wrangler.

[69] It's a four -seater.

[70] Yeah, there's six of us in this Wrangler.

[71] So Ron and I are in the back holding on the wheelbars.

[72] There's so many little serendipitous things about this scenario that every time we recall it, we're like, if that wouldn't happen, if that wouldn't happen, it's so sim like you guys would say.

[73] So we come around this bend and Ron and I have a pretty good view because we're up a little higher than everybody else and there's a very steep incline down about 300 feet oh we see a car down there it's not honestly that strange to see cars abandoned out in the desert you yourselves had already ditched a suburban yeah i think i even made a joke i was like man i hope someday i can get an old beater and put a cement block on the thing and run it off you know it'd just be fun to watch right yeah sure so we kind of keep moving on the road and then john who was john who was driving just hit the brakes and he's like something's weird about this one so we get out of the car and we noticed on the road that there's tire marks going off and it goes right down to that car and we're also noticing it's very shiny it hasn't been out there long we decide we're going to go check it out however it's 300 feet down i got my little eight -year -old with me my buddy ron was the one that was like i got this he starts scaling down the 300 foot thing about halfway down He's like, here's a purse.

[74] Oh.

[75] Yeah.

[76] He found a driver's license.

[77] He's finding all these things.

[78] Yeah.

[79] The car rolled down that hill and shit was flying all out of it.

[80] Was the car upside down?

[81] It actually was on its wheels, but the grill was facing us.

[82] Okay.

[83] As he's getting closer, he says there's a body.

[84] Oh.

[85] And he has the ID.

[86] So he starts calling out the name that he's reading on the ID to the body.

[87] and all of a sudden, she opens her eyes.

[88] Oh.

[89] He's like, she's alive.

[90] She's alive.

[91] She's alive.

[92] You know, this is back in 2006.

[93] My friends who are super smart, they have a GPS device.

[94] John, he was just like, logged the coordinates.

[95] Boom, boom, boom, boom.

[96] We had cell phones, but we couldn't get signal.

[97] We yelled down to Ron.

[98] We're going to drive down the road and try to get signal and call the authorities and get some water.

[99] The girls are getting a little freaked out, too, at this point.

[100] Yeah, you're managing the kids.

[101] Yeah.

[102] We did find a house.

[103] The guy was luckily home.

[104] He let us use the phone, gave us a case of water.

[105] We called 911.

[106] We gave him the coordinates.

[107] So we go back and John decides to stuff as many water bottles as he can in his pants and pockets and scale down.

[108] Very, very shortly after that, the helicopter shows up.

[109] This is a really rough territory.

[110] So they can't really land.

[111] Right.

[112] During that time, the EMTs show up.

[113] They all scale down the thing.

[114] Then they use the jaws of life to get her out.

[115] Now, this is where it gets kind of gnarly because I didn't know a lot of these details until a little bit later because I'm up top and I can't really communicate with the guys down there.

[116] So she was pinned.

[117] By the way, it was a Toyota Sienna minivan.

[118] So if you ever really want to save car.

[119] Peculiar off -road vehicle to be out on the trails with.

[120] Exactly.

[121] She was pinned between the driver's seat and the driver door.

[122] And she was on the side and her arm was hanging out the window.

[123] Oh, my God.

[124] She had maggots on her face.

[125] No. Oh, my God.

[126] How long had she been there?

[127] So the top of the minivan was dented in.

[128] It was filled with water.

[129] And the sheriff said it has not rained out here for three days.

[130] No. I cannot believe she was alive.

[131] I know.

[132] I know.

[133] She was pinned in this position.

[134] Maggates.

[135] Oh.

[136] Yeah, which honestly could have helped her.

[137] Sure.

[138] Infection.

[139] I don't know.

[140] Maybe they took care of it.

[141] But then they use a job.

[142] of life on the other side of the car because the driver's side was pinned by a boulder they did get her out they strapped her to the board and then there was like six or seven of them they carried her up the hill wow then they got her into the helicopter and took her away the sheriff did say that there was a missing person report on her that was filed four days prior oh my god did anyone go see her in the hospital did she ever get your name?

[143] Did you guys get flowers or chocolate?

[144] No, we did try to follow up because we had this kind of weird feeling of connection.

[145] Of course.

[146] Especially Ron, who was the first one down there, he was with her for about two hours down there.

[147] We did find out what hospital she went to and we tried to call to see if we could visit and the husband shut us down hard.

[148] He was like, stay out of it.

[149] Don't ever call it again, kind of slam the phone.

[150] Well, I can read between those lines.

[151] What, you can?

[152] Yeah, he was abusing her.

[153] She took off to get away from him.

[154] And then she's out in some bizarre location, hiding ish from him.

[155] And then this happens.

[156] Now he's weirdly responsible.

[157] You don't want anyone.

[158] What would be the, like, someone saves my wife.

[159] And they call him, like, bro, steak dinners for life.

[160] Get down here.

[161] Let's get some photographs with the princess.

[162] That's what we thought.

[163] I mean, we were just so worried for her.

[164] Yeah.

[165] Yeah.

[166] Listen, if you went off of a cliff in Arizona in 2006 and we're there for three days at the bottom of the ravine and we're rescued by people you don't know, contact us.

[167] You know, that was 16 years ago, so it was like three strapping young latch.

[168] Really gorgeous guys.

[169] John, Ron, David.

[170] Wow, that's amazing.

[171] Did it ever occur to you that you should change your name to Don?

[172] That would be perfect.

[173] It really would.

[174] Wow.

[175] Yeah, I mentioned the serendipity.

[176] Well, obviously, if the suburban hadn't broke down, we probably wouldn't have seen over.

[177] My friend John, in his instinct to just stop and say, let's check it out.

[178] He told us later that he had taken a class recently.

[179] One of his teachers had talked about living in the moment and also paying attention to your instincts.

[180] If your BS meter, your hinky meter's telling you something, check it out.

[181] You've introduced us.

[182] I'm going to use it.

[183] Hinky meter.

[184] Hinky meter.

[185] I really like this.

[186] You know the origin of hinky meter?

[187] I was introduced to it through, I listened to a lot of, like, skeptic podcasts and stuff like that.

[188] The hinky meter is like when just something doesn't seem right.

[189] If your hinky meter goes up, then you should look into it.

[190] But that experience really changed all of us because John could have just kept driving.

[191] And she was out there for three days.

[192] So guess what?

[193] Everybody else just kept driving, too.

[194] Yeah.

[195] Well, or they didn't see again, like you said, you being higher up.

[196] They didn't see it.

[197] allowed you guys to see.

[198] Oof, wow.

[199] After that was all done, we just drove out and went to Denny's.

[200] Got some grand slams.

[201] Sounds about right.

[202] We were quiet the whole time.

[203] We're like, wow.

[204] I'm sure your kids will remember that whole experience for the rest of their lives.

[205] That's about as exciting as it gets.

[206] Absolutely.

[207] No, we've talked about it many times.

[208] They just saw it as like a really amazing experience.

[209] They didn't get too scarred by it.

[210] It wasn't super traumatic for them.

[211] I'm just now remembering this has nothing new to your story, but the first dead body I ever saw in real life was in Arizona.

[212] Really?

[213] Yeah.

[214] I went with my buddy Trevor and his dad.

[215] His grandparents' car needed driving back from a retirement community outside of Phoenix.

[216] We flew there and got in this oldsmobile and drove at home.

[217] But before that, we went out to eat a couple times.

[218] We're hanging in the retirement community.

[219] Big traffic jam in the middle of a pretty desolate road.

[220] Finally get up there, police, the whole nine yards.

[221] There's a body in the ground and they're just putting the blanket over it.

[222] They've just decided that's a wrap on trying to resuscitate.

[223] I was probably eight or nine.

[224] So, yeah, very indelible memory.

[225] Can see it quite clearly.

[226] Yeah.

[227] Well, David, that was a harrowing story, and I'm glad, boy, you pray if you're in a pickle like that.

[228] People just take the time.

[229] Good for you, and Ron and John.

[230] Yeah, but Ron.

[231] Ron's the guy.

[232] You tell Ron, we tip our hats to him.

[233] Also, Suburban's a great vehicle.

[234] I hope he didn't give up on it.

[235] Yeah, they did go retrieve it from the desert a couple days later.

[236] That's a whole other story.

[237] Sure, sure.

[238] Well, David, great meeting you.

[239] Thanks for telling us that story.

[240] Appreciate it.

[241] Really nice to meet you guys.

[242] Thank you so much.

[243] All right.

[244] Take care, brother.

[245] Hi.

[246] Hello.

[247] Hi.

[248] You're in the medical field?

[249] I am a nurse at Boulder Medical Center.

[250] I work at the OBGN clinic.

[251] That's in Colorado?

[252] Yeah, it's in Boulder, Colorado.

[253] Are we allowed to use your real name?

[254] Yeah, I go by Liv, though.

[255] Okay, so Live, what happened?

[256] All right.

[257] So I was a senior in high school.

[258] I was going to Chelsea High School with Jacks.

[259] You probably know where Chelsea is.

[260] It's outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[261] Oh, you're a Michigander.

[262] I'm a Michigander through and through.

[263] I could tell you had elevated character and spirit.

[264] I just couldn't put my finger on what it was from, but now I know.

[265] So, yeah, I was a senior in high school.

[266] And my cousin from Austria was visiting at the time.

[267] She was a couple years younger than me. And my cousin and my mom and I decided to go to Grand Haven for the day to go to Lake Michigan and we plans to go paddleboarding.

[268] But of course we get there and it was just one of those days where the waves were insane.

[269] It was super windy.

[270] My mom is the best person ever and she's also super young at heart.

[271] So we just butt heads all the time.

[272] We get in this big argument because she is determined to use the paddle board as a surfboard.

[273] Oh wow.

[274] This is going the opposite way.

[275] I thought He was yelling at you to stay out of the water.

[276] And you're like, no. Little role reversal.

[277] She was like, I'm going to use this SS report.

[278] And I was like, that's dangerous.

[279] It's not going to work.

[280] Like, why would you even try?

[281] But of course, me telling her that she can't do it, I mean, she's got to do it.

[282] Yeah.

[283] No choice.

[284] You left her no choice, Liv.

[285] Mm -hmm.

[286] So she gets out of the water and my cousin and I go out beyond her.

[287] We're trying to swim in these waves, but it's kind of miserable.

[288] My cousin and I were maybe 10, 15 yards in front of my mom.

[289] and all of a sudden I just heard this big bump and I turned around and my mom is nowhere to be seen and the paddleboard is just kind of flows back to shore and my cousin immediately thinks that my mom is joking and like playing a prank on us so she starts laughing but I like weirdly instinctually it was like game time mode and I started trying to spend back to where she was and basically both above water and underwater trying to find her body quickly my cousin realizes that something is very wrong and she starts crying her eyes out that's helpful yeah that's always a huge help yeah the two of us find her body and we like lift her up we're trying to hold her up out of the wave is she underwater is she floating on top of the water no she was totally underwater oh yeah and we lift her up and her eyes were rolled in the back of her head and she was bleeding from her forehead totally unconscious because waze are so huge and an adult limp body is so happy.

[290] My cousin and I were struggling, struggling, and I kind of tried to keep her above water.

[291] So I start screaming, you need help.

[292] We need help.

[293] And it's like the psychology term, you know, where there's so many people that no one does anything.

[294] Yeah.

[295] Yeah.

[296] It felt like all these people on the beach were just like, what an interesting thing to be expecting.

[297] So finally, this middle -aged woman comes and the three of us are still struggling to like carry my mom's body to shore.

[298] So I start yelling, we need a man. We need a man. sure sure yeah this guy comes the four of us all get my mom's body under shore and all of a sudden she coughs up water comes to she has no idea where she is why she's in grand haven you know what day of the week it is anything to this day she doesn't remember any of this wow but clearly she hit her head on the board yep so what happened was she was trying to carry the board across her body like long ways across her parallel to the waves yes exactly So she had her arm over the board, and a big wave came, and boom, knocked her in her forehead, and knocked her in conscious.

[299] Whoa.

[300] So this is a PSA.

[301] Don't use a paddleboard as a surfboard.

[302] There's a lot of things to glean from this.

[303] And if you're carrying either device, let's do perpendicular to the waves so you don't have all that surface area.

[304] Exactly.

[305] And also how lucky that it made a loud enough noise that it got your attention.

[306] I think about it all the time.

[307] If I would have been on the beach, I'm sure I wouldn't have been paying attention.

[308] and my mom would have just, yeah, it's really terrifying to think, because there was really nobody else in the water.

[309] Oh, my God.

[310] She finally came to, and then luckily, you know, the Grand Haven beach is like two seconds from the hospital in Grand Haven.

[311] So we had the beach ambulance come and pick my mom up and take her to the hospital.

[312] And then again, the crazy thing with the whole crowd effect, it was me and my cousin, we had two paddle boards.

[313] We had cooler, like all this beach stuff.

[314] And the two of us had to lug it back to our cars and not its same.

[315] single person asked us, hey, is mom okay?

[316] Oh, my God.

[317] They must have all been visiting from Illinois.

[318] I think they were all from Illinois on vacation.

[319] Yes, has to be the only explanation.

[320] People behave very weird in crisis.

[321] And the whole aspect of being in a crowd where it's like, well, someone here's more qualified to deal with this than me and they'll present themselves opposite of me on an airplane, basically.

[322] I've had that happen to me on the airplane a few times where they're like, any medical professional is never and I'm terrified because to be honest unless you're having a baby I really can't help you you might do a makeshift tourniquet I'm sure you could do I mean look there's about nine things I think I could do probably maybe six of them I really could probably have some of your confidence that's so scary especially when it's your mom yeah and so she was just feeling awful the whole time because she felt like it was her fault she wasn't listening she had like a really bad concussion and a couple black eyes and it's pretty brutal but the crazy thing was I like I had so much adrenaline from the experience and you're all kind of almost making light of it and laughing at the situation because it was just so scary.

[323] I went to bed that night.

[324] My mom had to stay the night in the hospital.

[325] But as soon as I closed my eyes to fall asleep, the whole day, the whole event replayed right away in my head.

[326] And I sat up in bed and was like crying uncontrollably because it was like I hadn't actually processed what happened.

[327] Your body finally determined you are out of danger enough to experience it.

[328] So to this day, I have a. pretty hard time with big waves in general, which is sad because Lake Michigan is awesome in any condition.

[329] But now, whenever my mom disagrees with me, I say, I'm not keeping your life twice.

[330] Yeah, you have a trump card for life.

[331] Yeah, really nice trump card.

[332] Oh my gosh.

[333] Well, good for you.

[334] Yeah.

[335] Incredible.

[336] You're a hero.

[337] And then you went on to get into more heroine.

[338] Speaking of, you've got some arm cherries in this office.

[339] Shout out to Dr. Hemings, Dr. Abert.

[340] They were in shock that I was about to come talk to you right now.

[341] So you've got some fans.

[342] That makes me so happy.

[343] I was in Michigan seeing a friend in the hospital.

[344] I just felt like, wow, this is so flattering.

[345] Most of the nurses are into the show.

[346] The person who introduced me to you guys was my sister, who is also a nurse.

[347] Oh, really?

[348] And either of you, Moonschausen by proxying your children?

[349] Neither of us have children yet.

[350] Okay.

[351] Well, keep us updated.

[352] Yeah.

[353] Don't rule it out.

[354] Yeah, very high percentage of moonshows and my proxies mothers were nurses.

[355] And arm cherries.

[356] And arm cherries, yeah.

[357] Well, Liv, so nice to meet you.

[358] Thanks for telling us that story.

[359] Yeah, like that.

[360] This was awesome.

[361] Well, we adore you and we appreciate you.

[362] And please tell all your coworkers, we say hi, and we appreciate them.

[363] I'll pass it along.

[364] Bye, guy.

[365] We've all been there.

[366] Turning to the internet to self -diagnose our in -a -lawful.

[367] explicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers, and strange rashes.

[368] Though our minds tend to spiral to worst -case scenarios, it's usually nothing, but for an unlucky few, these unsuspecting symptoms can start the clock ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

[369] Like the unexplainable death of a retired firefighter, whose body was found at home by his son, except it looked like he had been cremated, or the time when an entire town started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their ceilings.

[370] Hey, listeners, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast.

[371] It's called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[372] Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at night.

[373] Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts.

[374] Prime members can listen early and ad -free on Amazon Music.

[375] What's up, guys?

[376] It's your girl, Kiki, and my podcast is back with a new season, and let me tell you, it's too good.

[377] And I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest, okay?

[378] Every episode, I bring on a friend and have a real conversation.

[379] And I don't mean just friends.

[380] I mean the likes of Amy Poehler, Kell Mitchell, Vivica Fox.

[381] The list goes on.

[382] So follow, watch, and listen to Baby.

[383] This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast.

[384] Hello.

[385] You guys hear me?

[386] Yeah.

[387] Fantastic.

[388] And we're allowed to use your real name, Matt.

[389] Yes, you can use my real name.

[390] Totally cool.

[391] So you saved someone's life?

[392] I did.

[393] It was 18 years ago now.

[394] I was a senior in high school, and I was getting ready to go to college.

[395] I was a piece of delivery boy at the time.

[396] Oh, my God.

[397] For a white outfit.

[398] It was a local Pittsburgh chain, and it was super busy Friday night.

[399] There was this one particular neighborhood.

[400] Tons of orders come from this one neighborhood.

[401] And as you leave this neighborhood, you're kind of facing the next subdivision in front of you, and there's like a row of houses.

[402] There's one house in particular, like, driveways, like, straight with the street, straight ahead of you.

[403] So I'm, like, sitting there waiting to turn.

[404] It's probably like 7 o 'clock.

[405] It was like kind of getting dark.

[406] but not super dark yet.

[407] But I remember the sun was kind of setting behind this house, right?

[408] So the front of the house is a little darker.

[409] And I noticed the garage doors looked like there were lights on in the garage and just didn't really think anything.

[410] Go back to the pizza shop, get some more orders.

[411] And multiple times I'm coming in and out of the subdivision over like the next two hours.

[412] And every time I kind of glance at this house for whatever reason, it's getting darker, sun setting.

[413] And it's very clear that there's lights on in the garage.

[414] Like look like red lights.

[415] Like I'm like, hmm, I guess maybe someone left the car on.

[416] So eventually night slows down.

[417] I pull into the driveway.

[418] I'm like, I'm just going to stop because it was bugging me. So I pull on the driveway, go up to the garage door.

[419] I'm looking in the windows.

[420] Then they have like contact paper on the windows.

[421] So you can't really see me in, but you can kind of see like in the perimeter.

[422] And I glance.

[423] And I'm like, oh, yeah, you can see like the tail lights around in this car.

[424] So I go up.

[425] I'm like, well, that's going to suck.

[426] Like, their car's going to be dead in the morning.

[427] Won't go to work.

[428] Let me go knock on the door.

[429] House is all lit up.

[430] Looks like people are home.

[431] So I go and knock on the door and nothing.

[432] Ringing the doorbell.

[433] I'm hearing the doorbell.

[434] Nothing.

[435] Starting to get like a little anxious about it.

[436] Seems weird.

[437] So I start pounding on the door and eventually this woman opens the window.

[438] It's like a split level house and looks out and she's like, I didn't order her pizza.

[439] Oh, right, because you're in the garb.

[440] I was like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[441] I'm thinking I woke her up.

[442] And I'm like, I think your car lights are on in your car.

[443] And she's like, oh, okay, thank you.

[444] Thank you so much.

[445] Get in the car and drive away.

[446] Go back to the pizza shop.

[447] I think like an hour or so passes.

[448] And she calls and the manager's like, calm down, calm down on the phone with this woman.

[449] And he's like, this lady needs to talk to you.

[450] Like she's yelling about talking to the driver.

[451] they hands the phone to me and she's hysterical.

[452] I think it was like 9 .30 at this point.

[453] I think I'd stopped around maybe 9 p .m. She'd come home right before the lottery, the Pennsylvania lottery came on with lottery tickets.

[454] So she pulls in the garage, gets out of the car, runs up to like turn on the lottery numbers and hits the garage door to close it behind her and left the car running and didn't even realize it.

[455] So she's upstairs watching the lottery doing her thing, cars running downstairs in the garage.

[456] Her husband got delayed on a business trip and was not coming home that day.

[457] And their daughter was staying, at a friend's house.

[458] And she was sitting at her dining room table, like, next to the sliding glass door that opened a little bit.

[459] And I guess passing out when I was pounding on the door and kind of startled her awake.

[460] This is not a detached garage.

[461] No, it's inside the basement.

[462] Oh, okay.

[463] She's upstairs.

[464] Oh.

[465] It's all integrated in the house.

[466] Oh my gosh.

[467] And she, I guess, went down, realized what's happening, freaks out, ran out of the house, called 911.

[468] I had left a little bit after I got off the phone with her.

[469] Like, holy shit.

[470] Like, that's crazy.

[471] And And I left and then drive down the street to see what's happening.

[472] The roads blocked off.

[473] They had, like, floodlights on the house.

[474] They had these massive fans just sucking air out of the house.

[475] And she had told me that the fire department, like, went in.

[476] And pretty much every part of the house was beyond lethal carbon monoxide levels, except kind of where she was because that door was cracked.

[477] And there was, like, some airflow there.

[478] But still, they were, like, it was a matter of time.

[479] Like, had she fallen asleep?

[480] Oh, my God.

[481] Craziest thing I realized, like, after the fact is I think it was, like, the night or two before, I was watching a Law and Order episode where this dude committed suicide leaving the car running in a garage.

[482] So I'm like, that shit must have been in the back of my mind.

[483] For whatever reason, it just like caught my attention.

[484] And it bugged me for hours till I was like, dude, just stop.

[485] Put your mind at ease and stuff.

[486] And it was the right decision.

[487] A lot of these stories are about listening to your gut.

[488] Yeah.

[489] Yeah.

[490] Yeah.

[491] Major one?

[492] Did she get you any thank you?

[493] Card, flowers, chocolate.

[494] I have the card.

[495] I actually found the card.

[496] Oh, my gosh.

[497] And she paid for my college textbooks.

[498] It would send me random gas cards because I commuted to school.

[499] She knew I commuted to school.

[500] Oh, good.

[501] Will you hold up that card?

[502] God knew what I needed most.

[503] And he called on your kind heart.

[504] And then really quick, let me see the painting above it, a can for watering flowers.

[505] So in this metaphor, you are.

[506] are the can of waters, and she was...

[507] I guess she's the flowers to keep growing.

[508] Okay, good.

[509] Beautiful.

[510] Inside, she said, Matt, I don't know how to repay you for your blessed act.

[511] Thank you very much.

[512] Whatever made you stop that night saved my life.

[513] You're my guardian angel that night, and I'll never forget you and we'll always be thankful.

[514] I hope we stay in touch.

[515] I would like to know how you're doing at school and if I can do anything to help you.

[516] Thank you again and again and again.

[517] Please use this money for your books and some gas and, of course, have some fun.

[518] Love you.

[519] Oh, that is so sweet.

[520] We were in touch for several years after the fact.

[521] And then I moved to Virginia, graduated college, and, you know, kind of lost touch.

[522] But cool story.

[523] Very, very cool story.

[524] My wife loves you guys.

[525] Is it cool if I, like, to have her come in?

[526] Yes, of course.

[527] And she's the reason we own a Chrysler Pacifica because of you.

[528] Hello.

[529] Hi.

[530] You're the owner of a Pacifica?

[531] Yes.

[532] Do you love it?

[533] I love it.

[534] Thanks for chatting and thanks for saving that woman's life.

[535] Yes.

[536] Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell the story.

[537] Well, enjoy that Pacifica.

[538] I hope you got black on black on black.

[539] We went with white.

[540] My last one was white and I loved it.

[541] It's nice.

[542] Well, thank you all.

[543] All right.

[544] All right.

[545] Okay.

[546] You want to hear my story?

[547] Yeah.

[548] I was still living in Santa Monica, but I was on TV and I know this because I was driving a car that GM had lent me. So I'm driving home from Hollywood.

[549] I'd gone out, right?

[550] But I was sober.

[551] And I'm coming back and I'm coming down Fairfax.

[552] your old neighborhood, and I'm taking it to the 10, and I'm going to get on the 10 going west to Santa Monica.

[553] And it's late at night.

[554] It's one in the morning.

[555] There's barely any cars out.

[556] And I turn right onto the on ramp.

[557] And as soon as I turn right and go up, I see that there is a car on the on ramp with all four doors open.

[558] And there's a car on the side of the on ramp with a door open.

[559] And there's six guys beating this guy in the middle of the road.

[560] They don't give a fuck.

[561] It's in the dead middle of the road.

[562] The guy's laying in the middle of the on -ramp.

[563] And there's six guys kicking him.

[564] And right as I pulled up kind of close enough to see everything, I saw a guy, he jumped on this dude's head.

[565] And I was like, oh, my God, they're fucking killing this guy right here.

[566] So I immediately call 911.

[567] I'm probably 150 feet before them.

[568] I'm just watching it out the windshield.

[569] And now I'm on with the police.

[570] And I'm like, oh my God, on ramp of Fairfax, I'm screaming like, they're beating this guy to death.

[571] And I'm now flashing my brights and beeping my horn, beeping my horn.

[572] They're still not stopping.

[573] Oh, my God.

[574] I pull up closer and I roll down the window and I'm screaming, I'm on the phone with the cops.

[575] The cops are coming.

[576] The police are coming.

[577] And I'm screaming and honking and beeping.

[578] And then four of the dudes stopped and turned and started running at the car.

[579] And I'm still on with 911.

[580] I put it in reverse.

[581] I'm now backing down the on -ramp as these four guys chase towards my car.

[582] They stop running after we get like a few hundred feet from the whole scene.

[583] I put it back in drive.

[584] I'm still screaming out the window.

[585] Cops are coming.

[586] 911's asking me to describe the people.

[587] And then at this point, they all jump in the car and take off on the on -ramp.

[588] And they're saying, what is the license plate?

[589] And I can't see it from this exact point.

[590] so I speed up and I catch up to them right as we're merging into the 10 and I read the license plate and then as I'm about to get on the 10 I realize the dude's laying in the street like if I don't stop and get now back he's going to get driven over yeah so like I slam on the brakes I've got the license plate I get on the shoulder and then now I back down the on ramp and again it's one in the morning it's dark and as I'm getting close to where he was I'm I'm getting nervous.

[591] I'm going to drive over him and it's dark and I'm looking and I'm looking and then I don't see him.

[592] And now he's not there.

[593] What?

[594] First of all, I couldn't believe the person could have gotten up.

[595] But somehow he now was gone and then they say, try to find him and he needs medical attention.

[596] I drive back out into Fairfax and then I pull up to the corner and I ask these three dudes that are sitting there.

[597] Do you see a guy walk by?

[598] And they go, yeah, he's over there.

[599] And he walked.

[600] into this little yard behind the gas station and then just fell over and was sitting in there.

[601] And then right about that time cops started arriving and then they dealt with the whole scene.

[602] But I do think if I had not intervened, there's no way that guy wouldn't have got beaten a doubt.

[603] They were jumping on his head.

[604] It was fucking gnarly.

[605] That's scary.

[606] That's also for a time you call 911.

[607] Oh, yeah.

[608] Andrea's here.

[609] Hello.

[610] Hi, guys.

[611] How's it going?

[612] Wonderful.

[613] Are we allowed to use your birth name of Andrea?

[614] Yes, you can use Andrea.

[615] I love your glasses.

[616] Oh, thank you.

[617] My cat -eye blue light glasses.

[618] Yes, I love.

[619] Also, a little SJR.

[620] SJR.

[621] Sally, Jesse Raphael.

[622] Oh, my God.

[623] Someone that I work with told me the exact same thing.

[624] Yeah.

[625] You got your SJRs on.

[626] You look so.

[627] kind and nice.

[628] Thank you.

[629] And yet you've saved someone's life.

[630] I did.

[631] Tell us the story.

[632] Okay.

[633] It was when I was in college.

[634] So I was asked to babysit for a family at the beach.

[635] We went to the outer banks of North Carolina.

[636] And they were renting like a large beach house, but two other families and there was going to be about six kids.

[637] They said, hey, why don't you come down, hang out with the kids during the day?

[638] You know, if we want to go out to dinner or anything special at night, you can hang out.

[639] out with the kids.

[640] They said, bring your boyfriend, we'll pay you.

[641] And I was like, okay, I'm coming to just give you a picture of the house.

[642] It's like a typical ocean front, three -story.

[643] You have a basement with a rec room on the bottom.

[644] You have a second floor that has lots of bedrooms and a family room.

[645] And then you've got the top floor with a kitchen, another family room, and another bedroom.

[646] And about midweek, they had sent my boyfriend and I out to dinner They were like, hey, you've been doing such a great job with the kids.

[647] They paid for us to have a nice night out.

[648] Well, when we got back, the kids had already had their dinner.

[649] They were kind of settling down to watch a movie on the second floor.

[650] So we were going to hang out with them.

[651] My parents had their dinner and socialized and did the parent thing upstairs.

[652] About 20 or 30 minutes into that movie, the son was getting a little antsy.

[653] Like, he could hear his mom upstairs and he was getting really upset.

[654] And so I tried to calm him down.

[655] What age did you say he was?

[656] He was three.

[657] Three, okay, okay.

[658] He just wasn't having any of it because he could hear his mom.

[659] So I walked over to the bottom of the staircase.

[660] I yelled out for the mom, hey, he's really upset.

[661] He can hear you.

[662] He wants to hang out with you.

[663] Is it okay if he comes up for a little bit?

[664] And she was like, yes, sure, send him on up.

[665] So upstairs he went.

[666] And then I sat there for a minute.

[667] I watched him walk up.

[668] I waited about 60 seconds.

[669] And I said, do you have him?

[670] And she said, yep, we got him.

[671] everything's good because big house lots of doors there's a pool literally everything that could go wrong yeah exactly so i come back to the couch i sit down i'm watching the movie about 10 minutes goes by i stand up i go down the hallway to the restroom and it's when i'm coming back from the restroom the couch kind of sits up against this large bank of doors that you can see out onto the deck in the pool And so I was about to sit down When out of the corner of my eye I caught something So I walked over to the door a little bit And that's what I realized It was the top of his head In the deep end of the pool No, no, no Literally the next five minutes Are very unclear Because immediately adrenaline panic I started screaming He's in the pool, he's in the pool I feel like I reached into that pool grabbed him out with one arm.

[672] It's like what you hear about, like all this adrenaline.

[673] When people experience these traumatic experiences, I grabbed him, I looked down, and his lips were blue, and his face was turning blue.

[674] Like, I thought he was gone.

[675] It was then that I went to set him down to start CPR, and as soon as I laid him down, he vomited water everywhere.

[676] Then he started coughing really bad, and by then, because I'm hysterical, all the adults had come out, down the exterior staircase, which is exactly the past, that he had taken down to the pool.

[677] Oh, my God.

[678] He had gone out the sliding doors upstairs and come down and got in the pool.

[679] His mom grabbed him from me at that point, and I literally just collapsed.

[680] Do you remember, though, any wave of relief when he threw up the water?

[681] Yeah, definitely.

[682] But in the days that followed, there was all kinds of emotions, really.

[683] It was happy that I had been there.

[684] Happy, I caught his head out of the corner of my eye.

[685] The chances of you, like, leaving the bathroom at that moment, like, all of it.

[686] Yeah.

[687] Literally 30 to 60 more seconds, and he probably wouldn't have made it.

[688] And having those feelings and being happy that I was there, but then also angry because what were you people doing?

[689] Like, if something had happened to him, I would have had to live with that.

[690] It started creeping back in, I think, when I had my own children.

[691] I bet.

[692] They learned to swim very young.

[693] A very good friend.

[694] This happened to her, and she found her kid, and she.

[695] resuscitated her kid.

[696] But I want to say she had like five months of deep, deep depression over the notion that it almost happened on her watch.

[697] And by the way, it would be impossible to watch your kids all day long every single day.

[698] They're going to be out of your sight all the time.

[699] Some things are going to happen, whether you're a fantastic parent or a terrible one, you know, and the terrible ones get lucky a lot.

[700] Yeah, absolutely no hard feelings for them later, just in the moment.

[701] Of course.

[702] Oh, my God.

[703] Thank God you were there.

[704] What a great babysitter.

[705] That's the babysitter you want.

[706] Yeah.

[707] Every time I would see his father after that, he would burst into tears just because he was just so overcome.

[708] I mean, it's a sweet family.

[709] Well, I hope that boy knows that he owes his life to you.

[710] And I hope he comes over and trims your hedges and stuff as a mild thank you.

[711] How old are your kids?

[712] 14 and 9.

[713] Oh, dang.

[714] It's getting real, huh?

[715] It's terrible.

[716] I can't wait until listen to Armstrong.

[717] you're expert when you guys are going through.

[718] Oh my God.

[719] Yeah, two people in our pod just sent their daughters to junior high and already there's been a huge social situation that was a bummer for everyone.

[720] It like started immediately.

[721] You just want to get them through six through eight alive.

[722] I know.

[723] I think I'm the only person I know who loved junior high.

[724] I also really liked it.

[725] But that's what I remember.

[726] And then when I hear the pod story, I was like, yeah, there is a bunch of shit that goes on.

[727] That's tough.

[728] It's just tough.

[729] But it makes you stronger if you get through it.

[730] Well, good luck to you, Andrea.

[731] Thank you.

[732] They'll return to normal, I'm told, soon.

[733] Yeah.

[734] Hopefully, they do.

[735] Thank you guys so much.

[736] Well, thank you so much for sharing it.

[737] And it was so nice to meet you.

[738] You too.

[739] Thanks, guys.

[740] Okay.

[741] Bye -bye.

[742] That was intense.

[743] That was intense.

[744] I guess we should have foreseen that that would be the case when you have a prompt of tell us about a time you save someone's life.

[745] I mean, it made me love people.

[746] Yeah.

[747] And maybe even hope that were as good as those people.

[748] I'm scared I'm not.

[749] Yeah, I can tell.

[750] Well, you just said it.

[751] I went to the bathroom and made a coffee, and you were saying, I'm afraid I couldn't swim good enough to rescue someone.

[752] Yeah, I'm scared of her.

[753] But you could.

[754] You absolutely would.

[755] Those were incredible.

[756] We just met a handful of heroes.

[757] I know.

[758] We're lucky.

[759] We're lucky.

[760] I hope they're around if we ever get into mix up.

[761] Me too.

[762] I love you.

[763] Oh.

[764] Do you want to sing a tune or something?

[765] I want to sing a tune or something?

[766] Oh.

[767] Okay, great.

[768] We don't have a...

[769] song for this new show so here I go go go we're gonna ask some random questions and with the help of armcherry's we'll get some suggestions on the flyer rhyme dish on the flyer rhyme dish enjoy follow armchair expert on the wondery app amazon music or wherever you get your podcast you can listen to every episode of armchair expert early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

[770] Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry .com slash survey.