Search Automator and the Coal Miner Tragedy - Happy Ending

Permenant Link To: Search Automator and the Coal Miner Tragedy - Happy Ending


The following, incredible story was sent to me almost a week and a half ago by a user of Search Automator.

When I read it, I was blown away. When I shared it with my wife, her eyes filled up with tears.

It's so inspirational, I wanted to share it with everyone...

Thank you, Ellis, for sharing it with me.

Here's Ellis in his own words:

=====================================================

The date was Wednesday, January 04, 2006, about 6:00 PM in the afternoon. I was in CanCun for Christmas and New Year holidays, and the television happened to be on, and CNN News was reporting about the lone miner who had survived the West Virginia coal mining disaster. The reporter was saying that carbon monoxide had poisoned 12 miners, and the lone survivor had been taken to the hospital in critical condition.

I knew that carbon monoxide is a deadly poison. It kills because it has greater affinity to hemoglobin than oxygen itself, and it substitutes itself in hemoglobin thus preempting the place of oxygen. A victim's survival depends on getting him oxygen, but it is difficult to do until the carbon monoxide is removed from his blood... and I knew that the fastest and best way to do this is with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

But... the reporter on CNN was not mentioning that the survivor of the mining disaster was receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy! Surely, I thought, that would be an interesting fact for the reporter to mention, and if they were not mentioning it, it had to be because they were not giving it to him!

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is relatively unknown in the U.S.A. for the purposes that I take it for myself, which is to prevent premature aging... but there are some hyperbaric oxygen tanks in the U.S. mostly near the coasts where divers might require slow decompression if they have had to resurface in a hurry. But in general, it is not looked upon as mainstream medicine, and since a hyperbaric oxygen chamber can cost more than $100,000 dollars, most hospitals do not have the equipment to give it.

"He needs hyperbaric oxygen," I said to a friend frantically, "and I know he isn't getting it because they haven't mentioned it. I have to get a message through to the doctors that he needs hyperbaric oxygen, and he needs to get it as fast as possible!"

My friend couldn't believe I was so upset about this. I am not a doctor, and I am not qualified to tell doctors in West Virginia what they have to do... but I knew they weren't giving Randal McCloy the necessary treatment, probably because they didn't have a hyperbaric oxygen tank... This isn't at all  very surprising because most hospitals don't have one... so they were not even aware of what they had to do.

I would have to make them aware of it... but how?

The first thing I did was to tell 2000 persons subscribed to my forum, Rejuvenation,

http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/Rejuvenation

to help me. 2000 heads are better than one.

I wrote a quick note. I told them what I had seen on television, and I asked them to help me try to get a message to Randal McCloy's doctors: he needs hyperbaric oxygen therapy as soon as possible, because it will force the carbon monoxide out of his blood. I asked them to try to relay the message if they knew how to call the hospital.

Then I copied and pasted the same message in another forum.

But after doing that... I still wasn't calming down. I couldn't stop trying to reach his doctors with my message.

What to do? Ah! My portable computer... the internet...

I opened Search Automator Pro... this is an amazing program with which I do my searches, on multiple search engines, and I can refine the results of the search. I typed in the key words: Hospital.. West Virginia... Sago...

Bingo! 

The first results had one that said "One Miner survives explosion at ICG Sago mine in West Virginia... taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Hospital in nearby Buchannon, West Virginia"

That was all I needed to know.

Now I needed the telephone number of St. Joseph's Hospital. I opened up a telephone directory on the internet,

www.switchboard.com

and very soon found a number for St. Joseph's Hospital.

I picked up the telephone and dialed... my heart was beating... the operator answered, and I explained that I was calling from Mexico....

"You're in Mexico?" the operator asked...

"Yes, Ma'am... I'm calling from Mexico. I have to get an urgent message through to the doctors of the survivor of the West Virgina coal mining accident... He needs to have hyperbaric oxygen therapy done, as soon as possible. This will force carbon monoxide out of his blood."

"Just a moment," the operator said.  I'm going to pass you to Emergency...

Emergency answered... A woman politely asked me how can she help me?  I asked her to please take notes of what I was going to tell her... I repeated what I had told the operator before her, and we went over the words hyperbaric oxygen therapy.. and I repeated to say that this will force carbon monoxide out of his blood.

"Can you get this message through to his doctors?"

"Yes," she answered, "I will certainly try."

I thanked her, and hung up the phone. I went to tell my friend that I had called a hospital in West Virginia, and now I hoped the message would get through...

But then I heard on the news that the coal miner had been transferred to another hospital. Oh no! 

I got on the internet again... I had done this once before, I could do it again. I had a telephone number for West Virginia University Hospital very soon...

I repeated my call. I left the same message, and the person who received the call also said he would try to relay the message.

Thursday passed for me... It was now Friday... By now I knew his name... Randal McCloy was on my mind.

3:30 AM.. I turned on the television, to CNN again... Lou Dobbs reporting... a rerun of a news show on prime time...

Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke... etc....

Then I heard Lou Dobbs say "The sole survivor of the West Virginia coal mining accident was transferred on Thursday to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to receive specialized treatment... Something called..."

He looked at his notes... "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy"

Wow! I can't believe it!

I burst into tears...

My message got through!
Lab office


Tuesday, January 17, 2006   |   Comments (0)
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