10 situations where social media helped save a life
Some people use social media tools for just fun. Social media tools like facebook, twitter, whatsapp, e.t.c have actually help save lives from different parts of the world. Many who have benefited from these tools will argue that social media is more important than what most people think.
In this article you will learn how social media can and have helped save lives in difficult situations.
1.
In march 2009, Rob williams and Jason Tavaria went on a skiing trip with their group in the swiss Alp. They were forced dto be seperated from their group by a heavy snow storm. Unfortunately, williams fell off a 66ft snow cliff and did not survive. A member from their team was able to contact Tavaria through twitter and Tavaria was able to send the longitude and latitude of his location to rescue operators which enabled them to find him.
2.
While competing in a July 2010 mini-triathlon, 36-year-old Leigh Fazzina was separated from the pack when her front bike wheel hit tree roots and she flew over the handlebars. Lost, injured and unable to walk, she tried calling for help on her phone but didn't have a strong enough signal to dial out. The athlete then tweeted: "I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can someone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in woods." According to rescuers, at least six people called them, and within minutes ambulances were dispatched to help her.
3.
In the spring of 2009, a 16-year-old in Britain logged on to Facebook late one night and sent a private message that he was going to harm himself to a friend in the United States. Even though she was 3,400 miles away, the girl told her mother, who called local police. The British Embassy was contacted, authorities narrowed the search to eight addresses in Oxfordshire and rescuers eventually found the troubled teen. Though he had overdosed on drugs, the young man was still conscious and made a full recovery after treatment in the hospital.
4.
Dave Cormier and Bonnie Stewart were on a hike with their young daughter in New Brunswick, Canada, and saw her eat some berries they didn't recognize. When they couldn’t identify the berry using the Internet, they posted a photo of the berry on Twitter after Poison Control informed them they would not be able to view the digital photo themselves. Thanks to a response via Twitter, they were able to identify the berry (which didn’t end up being fatal when ingested) and were better able to inform hospital staff when they arrived via ambulance.
5.
Twenty-two-month-old Iona Stratton had been fighting infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia since soon after her birth, but because of her half-Chinese, half-English background, her family couldn't find a bone marrow donor to match her rare type. In October 2008, after her parents made an appeal on Facebook, more than 5,500 people around the world signed up and, eventually, a match was found in Australia. Tragically, two weeks after the operation, the toddler died due to complications.
6.
In January 2010, when a massive earthquake hit Haiti, Colorado Springs native Dan Woolley was trapped under the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince. After losing his glasses in the quake, he used the focusing light from his iPhone’s camera to find a safe place to relocate to. Then, he used an iPhone application to diagnose and treat his injuries. Finally, he used the phone’s alarm clock to keep him awake in case he was going into shock. He was eventually rescued, after spending 65 hours in the hotel’s elevator shaft.
7.
Before bed one night, Tina Case was on Facebook when she read this post from a friend 40 miles away: "If anyone is up, PLEASE call 911 for me! My phone isn't working and I think someone is in my house!!!” After trying her friend's home phone with no luck, Case called 911. When police verified the emergency and discovered her friend's phone lines were dead, they sent officers to the house. Her friend was OK and authorities later said the appearance of police may have thwarted the intruders.
8. Mary Evelyn knew her son would have spina bifida before he was born. She joined some online groups for parents of such children, thinking that this would help her family adjust. Little did she know, her new online community would help save her child's life.
After bringing the baby home from the hospital, Evelyn noticed that he took long pauses between breaths while he slept. Her pediatrician said it was normal, but she was not convinced.
So Evelyn posted about the issue online, and was urged to take a video to show medical professionals. She did, and the video got the baby admitted to the hospital, where he was later diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and eventually needed a tracheotomy.
"An online community of strangers saved my baby's life," Evelyn writes on her blog. Now, she tells other families whose children are diagnosed with SB: "Find your community."
8. Last year, a college student ended up getting lifesaving cancer surgery because he looked at a photo on Reddit that was labeled as "gross."
The photo was posted by someone who had recently had a testical removed due to cancer. Taylor "Chase" Tyree, a computer science major at the Colorado School of Mines, realized he had the same symptoms that the poster described. Four days later, he was in surgery.
"I can tell my friends, 'Reddit saved my life!'" Tyree posted after the procedure, along with a photo of himself in his hospital gown, thumbs up.
9. An Australian mother looked to a mother's Facebook group for help identifying a red lump on her toddler's head. The photo the woman, identified only as Kerry, posted did not look alarming — just a little swelling behind the ear. Yet, her friends urged her to take 21-month-old Gracie to the hospital immediately. Some group members had correctly pegged the swelling as mastoiditis, an infection that can lead to hearing loss, meningitis or even a brain abscess.
At the hospital, Gracie had surgery, with doctors drilling into her skull to relieve swelling pressure. She made a full recovery.
10. On the other side of the world, another toddler named Grace was also saved when her picture was posted on Facebook — but this time, her parents didn't even know she was sick. Michele Freeman uploaded an everyday snapshot of her daughter, and a friend who happens to be a pediatric nurse noticed something odd about the child's eyes: One reflected red light, as is common in flash photos, while the other eye looked white.
Warned by her friend, Freeman had her daughter examined, and Grace was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a form of cancer. She lost her vision in the affected eye, but the cancer was treated before it could spread.
The world has gone global, your social media connections might realize you are sick before you do.
It's important to note that all of these stories led the parents and patients to consult real doctors; it would be a terrible idea to rely entirely on the opinions of online friends to make diagnoses. Still, the common thread in all these stories is that the parents or patients would not have seen a doctor at that time, had they not been pushed to do so by their online networks.
Now dear readers you can also share a story of how social media have helped save your life or the life of someone that you know.
In this article you will learn how social media can and have helped save lives in difficult situations.
1.
In march 2009, Rob williams and Jason Tavaria went on a skiing trip with their group in the swiss Alp. They were forced dto be seperated from their group by a heavy snow storm. Unfortunately, williams fell off a 66ft snow cliff and did not survive. A member from their team was able to contact Tavaria through twitter and Tavaria was able to send the longitude and latitude of his location to rescue operators which enabled them to find him.
2.
While competing in a July 2010 mini-triathlon, 36-year-old Leigh Fazzina was separated from the pack when her front bike wheel hit tree roots and she flew over the handlebars. Lost, injured and unable to walk, she tried calling for help on her phone but didn't have a strong enough signal to dial out. The athlete then tweeted: "I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can someone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in woods." According to rescuers, at least six people called them, and within minutes ambulances were dispatched to help her.
3.
In the spring of 2009, a 16-year-old in Britain logged on to Facebook late one night and sent a private message that he was going to harm himself to a friend in the United States. Even though she was 3,400 miles away, the girl told her mother, who called local police. The British Embassy was contacted, authorities narrowed the search to eight addresses in Oxfordshire and rescuers eventually found the troubled teen. Though he had overdosed on drugs, the young man was still conscious and made a full recovery after treatment in the hospital.
4.
Dave Cormier and Bonnie Stewart were on a hike with their young daughter in New Brunswick, Canada, and saw her eat some berries they didn't recognize. When they couldn’t identify the berry using the Internet, they posted a photo of the berry on Twitter after Poison Control informed them they would not be able to view the digital photo themselves. Thanks to a response via Twitter, they were able to identify the berry (which didn’t end up being fatal when ingested) and were better able to inform hospital staff when they arrived via ambulance.
5.
Twenty-two-month-old Iona Stratton had been fighting infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia since soon after her birth, but because of her half-Chinese, half-English background, her family couldn't find a bone marrow donor to match her rare type. In October 2008, after her parents made an appeal on Facebook, more than 5,500 people around the world signed up and, eventually, a match was found in Australia. Tragically, two weeks after the operation, the toddler died due to complications.
6.
In January 2010, when a massive earthquake hit Haiti, Colorado Springs native Dan Woolley was trapped under the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince. After losing his glasses in the quake, he used the focusing light from his iPhone’s camera to find a safe place to relocate to. Then, he used an iPhone application to diagnose and treat his injuries. Finally, he used the phone’s alarm clock to keep him awake in case he was going into shock. He was eventually rescued, after spending 65 hours in the hotel’s elevator shaft.
7.
Before bed one night, Tina Case was on Facebook when she read this post from a friend 40 miles away: "If anyone is up, PLEASE call 911 for me! My phone isn't working and I think someone is in my house!!!” After trying her friend's home phone with no luck, Case called 911. When police verified the emergency and discovered her friend's phone lines were dead, they sent officers to the house. Her friend was OK and authorities later said the appearance of police may have thwarted the intruders.
8. Mary Evelyn knew her son would have spina bifida before he was born. She joined some online groups for parents of such children, thinking that this would help her family adjust. Little did she know, her new online community would help save her child's life.
After bringing the baby home from the hospital, Evelyn noticed that he took long pauses between breaths while he slept. Her pediatrician said it was normal, but she was not convinced.
So Evelyn posted about the issue online, and was urged to take a video to show medical professionals. She did, and the video got the baby admitted to the hospital, where he was later diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and eventually needed a tracheotomy.
"An online community of strangers saved my baby's life," Evelyn writes on her blog. Now, she tells other families whose children are diagnosed with SB: "Find your community."
8. Last year, a college student ended up getting lifesaving cancer surgery because he looked at a photo on Reddit that was labeled as "gross."
The photo was posted by someone who had recently had a testical removed due to cancer. Taylor "Chase" Tyree, a computer science major at the Colorado School of Mines, realized he had the same symptoms that the poster described. Four days later, he was in surgery.
"I can tell my friends, 'Reddit saved my life!'" Tyree posted after the procedure, along with a photo of himself in his hospital gown, thumbs up.
9. An Australian mother looked to a mother's Facebook group for help identifying a red lump on her toddler's head. The photo the woman, identified only as Kerry, posted did not look alarming — just a little swelling behind the ear. Yet, her friends urged her to take 21-month-old Gracie to the hospital immediately. Some group members had correctly pegged the swelling as mastoiditis, an infection that can lead to hearing loss, meningitis or even a brain abscess.
At the hospital, Gracie had surgery, with doctors drilling into her skull to relieve swelling pressure. She made a full recovery.
10. On the other side of the world, another toddler named Grace was also saved when her picture was posted on Facebook — but this time, her parents didn't even know she was sick. Michele Freeman uploaded an everyday snapshot of her daughter, and a friend who happens to be a pediatric nurse noticed something odd about the child's eyes: One reflected red light, as is common in flash photos, while the other eye looked white.
Warned by her friend, Freeman had her daughter examined, and Grace was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a form of cancer. She lost her vision in the affected eye, but the cancer was treated before it could spread.
The world has gone global, your social media connections might realize you are sick before you do.
It's important to note that all of these stories led the parents and patients to consult real doctors; it would be a terrible idea to rely entirely on the opinions of online friends to make diagnoses. Still, the common thread in all these stories is that the parents or patients would not have seen a doctor at that time, had they not been pushed to do so by their online networks.
Now dear readers you can also share a story of how social media have helped save your life or the life of someone that you know.
Post a Comment