Brachial Acts of Kindness

I ran into an acquaintance last week, an Exec Producer for a bi-coastal production company. I won't name him here, but suffice it to say if you've been in the business for more than a few years, you know this guy.


Anyway, we got to talking about another mutual acquaintance, and my EP friend says something like, "Yeah, I got him his first job in advertising.  Funny story."  And he goes on to recount a tale that goes something like this...


Apparently, at the age of around 8 or so, my EP friend and his brother were roughhousing around the house, as young boys are wont to do. And at one point the roughhousing gets pretty rough and this future EP's arm goes through a plate glass window.


If you're a student of anatomy, you'll know that armpit is the home of the Brachial artery, which is the major blood vessel of the upper arm. And what's unusual about it is that it's relatively close to the surface of the skin.  So if you put your arm through a plate glass window there's a pretty good chance you could sever this artery.


Which is exactly what happened.


Now, even if you don't know anything about anatomy, you probably do know that "severed artery = very bad thing."  


So there's blood spraying everywhere, and the dad runs into the room. If you're a parent, this is pretty much your worst nightmare.  This isn't a tooth knocked out, or a broken bone or a concussion.  All of those things are terrible, but they're probably pretty common childhood injuries and they all have a large enough window of opportunity to call an ambulance or get to the hospital.  The window of opportunity on an 8 year old's life blood squirting out of a severed artery is very small.


Very, very small.


At the time this occurred, 911 hadn't even been invented yet.  But even if it had, EMT's would never have arrived in time.  


So now what?  


The dad runs to the next door neighbor's house.  The next door neighbor is a doctor, a cancer doctor.  I don't even know what that means.  An oncologist? A surgeon? It doesn't really matter because he's home.  And he comes running over to the house, I assume with his doctor's bag, because in my imagination that's exactly what Marcus Welby would do.  And he and the dad pick this kid up and put him on the kitchen table, and the doctor operates on him right there. In front of the Frigidaire and the Amana Radar Range, kitchen floor slick with blood, this man operates on this kid.


And he saves his life.


Years later, the kid grows up to be head of production at some agency or another, and one day a young man walks into his office and says, "My name is xxx xxxxxxx.  My father saved your life so you have to give me a job."  And of course he did.


Funny story indeed.


This narrative made me stop and take my own measure as a man, and as a father.  If this was one of my beautiful girls, what would I have done?  Could I have remained as calm and focused as this man's dad, to remember that a doctor lived next door and to fetch him so quickly?


Equally amazing is that the doctor was home and came immediately, without question, to make the ultimate house call.  With no discussion of liability or malpractice.  Simply to help, and to save a life.  


It was a simpler time, I think.  But I also know that people like this still exist.


Which is why I like this spot so much.  I saw this shortly after I heard that story, and it really made me feel that despite everything we hear, people are still basically good, and there are heroes everywhere, in big ways and small ways.  


I'd like to think that this is all actual security camera footage and that none of it is staged.  I really hope it is.  But even if it's not, it's still a wonderful spot.  Nice job, Coke.