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How your mobile could save your life!
You need your phone and you take it everywhere with you, but what if, one day, it could actually save your life? People use their mobile phones in thousands of situations to call the police or the emergency services, but there are some cases where these useful things have saved lives in stranger ways.
It was 1998 and war cameraman David Smith was working in a dangerous part of the world. He had put his phone with his money in a small bag under his shirt. One afternoon, as he was running away from gunfire, he felt something hit his stomach. At first, he thought it was a rock. Later, he discovered that a bullet had hit and smashed the phone in his bag – his mobile had saved his life.
After a big earthquake in Haiti in 2010, hundreds of people were trapped under buildings that had fallen down on top of them. Some of them could still use their mobile phones to text their families and loved ones. A website called OpenStreetMap used these text messages to discover where the survivors were buried. Then the emergency services were able to find and rescue them.
After a night out with friends, Jason Collins, a student in Manchester, decided to walk home through a park. He tried to climb over a fence but fell and part of the fence went into his stomach. He was stuck. He called for help but there was nobody in the park that late at night. Luckily, Jason had his mobile phone in his pocket. He called an ambulance and explained what had happened. At first, they didn’t believe him, but because of his phone he is alive today.
When American Kevin Winter collapsed because of his diabetes, his dog, Belle, saved his life. She knew that she should bite down on the number 9 of Kevin’s mobile phone if he collapsed, and this would contact the emergency services. ‘I would be dead if I didn’t have Belle,’ he said … and of course his mobile phone.
There are so many more stories. There’s the lady from New Zealand who used her phone to find out she had skin cancer. The American high school student who used advice from an app on his phone to give lifesaving medical help … and other similar surprising situations.
So, next time you think you should leave your phone at home, think again, it might just save your life.
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