My daughter said to me, “Mom, you should write a book about that thing that happened”

Me: “What thing that happened?”

Daughter: “You know, the day you saved someone”

Me: “Oh the highway thing?! [chuckle] Not a whole book!”

While the incident she is referring to is not quite long enough for a book; it is the perfect length for a blog post.

The headline reads…

Yogi dives in through the front window of a stranger’s car because driver was unconscious

Headed home after an exhausting day of yoga teacher school, I enter the highway from the on-ramp and I’m surrounded by brake lights; traffic was moving at maybe 5mph. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a Honda tap the bumper of a BMW. No sooner can I comment on the fender bender; I see the Honda hit the BMW again!!

Wait, was that Intentional? The crash has my attention; I look at the driver and can see he is seizing.

I park my car with my hazards on and sprinted to the left lane of the highway. I looked inside the driver’s window of the Honda and saw a man having a *grand mal seizure. I jumped up onto the window frame, which was thankfully down, and reached over the seizing man to muscle the Honda into “Park”. I turned the keys to off, unclipped the man’s seat belt and by now with the help of the BMW driver, pull the seizing man out of the vehicle onto the highway. At some point I yelled for someone to “CALL 911!! TELL THEM HE IS SEIZING, FOAMING AND BLUE”.

A few more people stopped and joined this group of humans gathered on the side of the highway to save someone’s life. (I am having a hard time typing this because my hands are shaking and my heart is pounding, the story, in its entirety is overwhelming).

In patients who suffer from seizures, there is the “after”, called postictal. This is when the brain is trying to recover and reset; often patients show up in this state with incredible confusion and sometimes anger, not being able to understand the context of their surroundings. Enter the driver, becoming increasingly, more and more aggressive. It took all of the humans gathered to save him, to restrain him.  The situation was becoming dangerous.

The police arrived and within minutes, helped the EMT’s secure the driver to a stretcher and take him to the emergency room. I stayed on the highway for a few more minutes with the police, answering questions. At some point the BMW driver hears that I did not know the driver of the Honda and says, “I’m sorry, did you say you didn’t know that guy?”

Me: “No sir, I do not know him”

BMW driver: “And you just stopped to help?”

Please don’t confuse my altruism for narcissism (thanks TSwift); I am not sharing this story for accolades or for any reason other than the Universal intervention involved in the series of events…you can’t make this shit up.

Finishing a day of LivFree yoga teacher school that included graduation classes; I participated in more yoga than the most committed of yogis. Hydration and fuel have never been my strong suit, so as the end of the day approached, my head was throbbing. What I ignored manifested into a horrific migraine. Grateful for modern pharmaceuticals; my migraine med takes at least 30 min, if not close to an hour to work. Meanwhile, my head is becoming so heavy I can’t hold it up any longer and I fell nausea taking the wheel. I am grateful to be alone in my car; I am in the parking lot because there was absolutely no chance I could drive. I reclined the seat, pressed my knuckles into my eyes for the pressure and began to breathe. This episode of “yoga off the mat” was brought to you by pranayama (breath work).

Like the anticipated curtain opening of Hamilton, the pain from my migraine began to subside. I spent at least an hour in the car and when I felt well enough to drive, I decided a convenience store down the street would be my next destination. I stopped for a soda to calm my stomach, and the caffeine would help the residual migraine pain. Returning to my car, I began the almost hour-long drive home.

Headed home after an exhausting day of yoga teacher school, I enter the highway from the on-ramp and I’m surrounded by brake lights; traffic was moving at maybe 5mph. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a Honda tap the bumper of a BMW. No sooner can I comment on the fender bender; I see the Honda hit the BMW again!!

Wait, was that Intentional? The crash has my attention; I look at the driver and can see he is seizing.

*I am not a current medical professional and am not making a speculative diagnosis. My “scene size up” was based on my education and experience as an EMT.