On Friday afternoon I headed out to run some errands. As I approached my first destination, I pulled up to a red light at a busy intersection. The light turned green and the car in front of me just sat there. I gently tapped my horn and received an odd hand gesture from the driver. In conjunction with the hand gesture, I noticed his head moving – somewhat violently. In a split second it occurred to me this person was in the middle of a medical emergency. I jumped out of my car and ran up to his car. I didn’t even need to get to his window to see he was jerking violentally and uncontrollably. When I got to the window, I saw he was also foaming at the mouth. At the least it was a grand mal seizure, at the most, some sort of cardiac event.

Because I’ve taken a million (ok, maybe only 47 CPR classes), I knew to stay with him and direct someone else to call 911. I yelled to the car behind mine and a very nice couple responded quickly, pulling out a phone and running over to help me.

The seizing driver was locked in his car. Luckily, he had the forethought to put the car in park before losing control of his body. So we couldn’t get to him, but at least the car wasn’t moving.

I was yelling, through the window telling him help was coming, reminding him to stay calm. He kept trying to grab something to his right – his phone maybe? In the midst of this grabbing he took the car out of park.

Still violently shaking, and choking up blood now, the car and driver started slowly coasting forward into a major intersection and through a red light. I was on the right side of the car, trying to pull on the car handle to hold the car back (yes, in that moment, I thought I was THAT strong). The woman (who could not have weighed more than 100 pounds) who had come with her husband and cell phone got in front of the car, thinking she could hold the car in place.

There was a lot of screaming and it took us a moment to realize we could not stop the car. Rational thought was functioning on delay, I suppose.

As the car entered the intersection into 35 mph traffic – buses heading toward me on the left – trucks heading toward my pint size cohort on the right, we were somehow able to jump up and down, yell, scream, wave our arms and bring traffic to a halt so the seizing driver could move forward safely. As he coasted through the light, he veered into the oncoming lane on the other end of the intersection. Cue more frantic jumping up and down, yelling and screaming, waving our arms, as we jogged along side the car. The oncoming traffic came to a gentle halt as well.

The car started heading toward a pole. The other woman and I quickly conversed and agreed we should guide it that way – a safe and gentle bump into the pole was the best bet to stop the car at this point. Again, irrational of us to think we were guiding this moving vehicle, but in the moment it seemed a relief to know this terror would end safely and momentarily.

A split second before hitting the pole, the seizing driver turned the wheel slightly to the right, allowing him to just pass the pole and put his foot to the gas FULL FORCE. I didn’t see what happened next until it was over. I was doubled over screaming, as was my pint size cohort. After an audible crash, I looked up to see the seizing driver had plowed into a large dumpster in front of an apartment building. Another utility pole caught the car and dumpster, preventing the driver from plowing right into someone’s living room.

The car had managed to somehow crawl up over part of the dumpster and was sitting at a 45 degree incline. The driver still seizing, with the gas pedal to the floor. The tires were spinning and smoke was quickly filling the area around the front of the car. A crowd was starting to form. I said a couple times, “we need to break a window and get him out,” followed by, “Where the hell is 911?!?!?!” It seemed an eternity had passes since we placed the call.

I thought of my husband and I knew I could not bust into this car that may explode at any given moment. I don’t know enough about cars to know if that is possible. But I know enough about my husband to know that he wants me alive. My pint size cohort wasn’t volunteering to do it either and her husband was lost in the crowd. A young kid, early 20’s, came running over and said, “You need to break in the car and turn it off.” I agreed with him and just stood there. Without flinching he grabbed a rock from the apartment landscaping, broke the back window of the car, dove in and reached over the driver to turn the car off, just as 911 pulled up.

The firemen, EMTs and police were able to quickly pull the driver from his car. He appeared uninjured. He had stopped seizing but was completely out of it. There was a lot of blood from repeatedly biting his tongue. It was horrific – but such a relief that it was over and no one was hurt. I cannot figure out how that happened.

I have replayed these moments over and over in my head for the last 48 hours and I can see numerous opportunities for major casualties and the loss of life. Somehow it didn’t turn out like that, though.

The ambulance took Daniel, the seizure victim, to the hospital and the whole event was over as quickly as it started.

The couple who called 911 disappeared. The crowd dispersed. Suddenly I was the only one standing there. I turned to walk back to my car and the adrenaline that had made me think I could stop a car with my sheer grip and determination had left my body and left me almost unable to walk. My legs were stumbling beneath me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt less coordinated in my life. As I began to get my legs back under me, a woman came over and hugged me – which seemed totally weird to me. She said, “You did everything right.” This also seemed weird to me. I mean, she was very kind and her words were so sweet. But all I did was follow my gut. My pint sized cohort did the same. We just did what seemed right in the moment. We had the opportunity to help someone who desperately needed it. There was no option but to just do whatever we could.

I considered following the ambulance to the hospital. What if this man had no family? What if no one was there to help him once he had his whits back about him? Who would tell him what happened? Who would give him those lost moments of his life back. But I realized it would be really weird (and rather inappropriate) for me to find him at the hospital and introduce myself to him. Wasn’t there a Sandra Bullock movie about that? I didn’t want to be creepy about the whole thing….

These few minutes have not left my mind at all over the past couple days. I have so many questions for myself about the whole thing.

Why did I get out to help?

Why did I think I could stop a moving car?

Why did I enter 35 mph traffic without an ounce of fear or restraint?

Why did I stay there after everyone else left?

My mom and husband would tell you I’m nosy – that’s why I got out of my car in the first place and that’s why I stuck around. I can’t disagree. But I think it’s more that that.

In think is has to do with my own human condition. I want to help people – more than that, I want to save people. Heck, I want to save people from themselves. I want people to be survivors, survivors of their own circumstances (their disease, their health, their lack of fitness). I want people to get rid of their demons (people who put them down, people who get in their way, the mental self talk that screams in their head). I want to remove obstacles from people’s lives (unhealthy habits, poor self worth, cupcakes.)

I am willing to give a lot of myself to ensure your success. I will give you everything I have. I will give you the best of myself.

When you work with people online, as I do here, it’s hard for people to get to know me. It’s hard to build trusting relationships. It’s hard to share with people who I really am, at my core. I think this event is the best example I could ever give you of who I am. I’m not perfect and I’m not graceful. Put me in the middle of traffic with a seizing man and I’m sure I appear to be a raging lunatic. But anything you ask of me, I will give you 110% of myself. I will jump up and down, yell at the top of my lungs and cause a scene to help you get what you want and need – to help you land in a better place than you are right now. I will use every bit of strength, courage, guts and stamina to push you in the direction I know will lead to your success.

I know if I can help you become better, you can help others become better. And what if the world was full of women who all KNEW they had the capacity to make the world better – not in a woo woo, dream catcher kinda way, but in the truest, deepest sense? What if we all believed that we are amazing – that there is nothing we can not do? It would be pretty powerful and we would raise a generation of women who would change the world in ways we can’t imagine.

So, when you come to my site and read my advice, know I’m giving you the best of what I’ve got, every single day. I give you my best because I want you to to be the best person you can be. I want you to be bold and brave and brazen. I want you to know you can do anything. I want you to change yourself so you can raise children who will change the world.

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Steve Prefontaine

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