10 People Who Acted Fast and Became Heroes of the Day

Most of us hope we’d step up in a crisis, but it’s hard to know until it actually happens. These people didn’t have time to think it through or plan a perfect response. They just acted. Whether it was instinct, kindness, or sheer adrenaline, they stepped up and saved the day when it mattered most.

• My SIL and her family were over at our place, and she took her toddler inside to potty, then let him back out but didn’t tell anyone. It’s a big country acreage, so nobody had an eye on him until he wandered onto the road. I saw him there just by pure luck and ran like a madwoman to grab him.
  SIL had the audacity to scream at everyone else about why we weren’t watching him! It was such a scary moment, but it taught me the lesson that someone needs to be “on duty” at all times. — AllEternals / Reddit
• When I was about 10, my dad wanted to take us all out to go mini-golfing. My older brother and sister were all for going, but my mom and I stayed home. This was 17 years ago, so pre-cell phone days.
  About an hour, maybe less, after they leave, my mom’s back starts hurting no matter what position she was in, so I kept rubbing it for her, up and down with the heel of my hand. After an hour, I started to worry because I was getting tired and knew that nobody’s back should hurt this badly for so long, so I began begging her to call for an ambulance.
  I had this terrible feeling that something bad would happen if I stopped because the pain was getting worse instead of better. Eventually, she caved, but the pain was so bad she needed me to talk to the dispatcher and give our information.
  The ambulance shows up, the paramedics send me across the street to a neighbor’s while I wait for my family to get back after my mom is taken away. Apparently they wound up going out for ice cream as well as golfing, which is why it took so long.
  I can’t remember what was wrong with my mom exactly, maybe a clot or something, but the doctors said she would have died had I not stayed behind and rubbed her back. Good old intuition bought me another 15 years with my mom. — Microwave_7 / Reddit

• I was swimming with a girlfriend and her kids at my apartment’s swimming pool. She and two of her kids went into the locker room, and I was talking to her husband by the pool while we were getting a picnic of food put out for everyone. We had assumed all three of the kids went to the locker room with her.
  I happened to glance at the empty pool, and one of her kids was lying on the bottom of the pool like a rag doll! I jumped in, pulled her out, with my arm around her stomach/waist, and just kept hitting her back until she started spitting out water and then breathing. I was shaken up for a long time about it. — MiddletonWI / Reddit
• I indirectly saved a woman’s life after she wandered into my store and began stumbling around. She was mumbling to herself, and I managed to make out three words—"insulin, blood sugar..."— before she collapsed headfirst into the candy racks. I called the EMTs, and they showed up in about 3 minutes, gave her a shot of something to stabilize her, then carted her off to the hospital.
  One of the cops who responded to the initial call came by later that day to tell me that if I hadn’t caught the “insulin” part and alerted the EMTs, she could have gone into severe shock and possibly not made it. — eggson / Reddit

• My mom and grandpa were putting out a kiddie pool for my siblings and me in our backyard when we were little. My grandpa had set it up, and my mom kept insisting that, for some reason, she felt like they should move it to a different spot. Thankfully, they did, and while we were all playing in the pool, a huge branch from a tree in our yard snapped and came crashing down exactly where the pool had originally been. — WaitWut7 / Reddit
• I had just finished hosting a meeting (I swear it was productive), and a friend said, “You don’t look so good.” I had just come off a weekend boat diving in the Red Sea and figured I was just tired. My friend said, “Nah, man, I’m taking you to the doctor.”
  The doctor at our clinic poked me a few times and said, “Take him to the ER and tell them it’s his appendix.” I was in surgery less than 90 minutes later. My surgeon said I was 2–3 hours from it blowing up. I lived alone, and no one would have missed me until the next day. — ksuwildkat / Reddit

• I was FaceTiming with my friend, Josh, when my toddler, Lily, secretly took the phone when I went to the bathroom. Josh laughed, thinking it was harmless. Then came the sound that frightened him.
  A sharp, uneven breath. A wheeze. Lily’s little voice trembled. She was having an asthma attack after accidentally locking herself in a room.
  Josh’s heart pounded, but his voice stayed steady. Gently, he spoke to her, keeping her focused while dialing emergency services. “Breathe in... two, three... breathe out... two, three...”
  Through tears and gasps, Lily repeated after him. He stayed on the line, guiding her with calm, rhythmic breathing until help arrived.
  We searched frantically until we heard a tiny voice from behind a door. We burst in. She was scared and exhausted—but safe.
  Later, through tears, I said that he saved her life. He exhaled, the weight of it all settling in.
• I live on the north shore of Lake Superior. It’s an absolutely beautiful lake, and I love living here, but every year, people, usually children, get swept out into the lake. In this part of the Lake, the water temperature doesn’t get above 45 degrees.
  I went for a walk yesterday with my toddler, a mom friend, and her son. We ended up playing on the beach. This isn’t a swimming beach, it’s far too rocky. My toddler was having fun running around, playing in the sand, and throwing rocks into the lake. Suddenly, he ran into the lake.
  He got pretty far in when the cold hit him, and he sat down with the water up to his neck. I ran in after him and pulled him out. If he had taken a step further and sat down, we never would have been able to find him beneath the waves. I was looking right at him when he ran in, but I was too far away to get to him if he had gone under.
  I sobbed. It was so scary. I could have lost him. It will be a while before we go back to the beach.
  Edit: My son will definitely wear a life jacket next time we’re at the beach. This was too close of a call to risk it again. — kdawson602 / Reddit

• I was in the middle of a neighborhood pool and watched a toddler at the side of the pool (10 ft. end) take his floats off and then jump in the water. He curled up like a ball and began to sink quickly. I was able to reach him before he reached the bottom. He was scared but screaming. The babysitter was on her phone. — whimsical316 / Reddit
• When I was 11, I was standing in the entryway of my friend’s house, waiting for her to leave with me, as her toddler-aged brother played on the second-floor banister above me. She had a big house, and the ledge that her brother was dangling his various limbs from was very high up. Literally out of nowhere, I see a large mass falling from my peripheral vision.
  I dove towards it at the last second as I realized that it was her brother falling. I ended up with whiplash from him landing on my neck and knocking me down, and he was screaming and crying for about an hour... but at least he didn’t meet the wood floor headfirst. He is 13 now and occasionally tells this story. — sadie14 / Reddit

Not all heroes wear capes—some just act fast and do the right thing. And really, that’s what makes the biggest difference.