Once, when we were driving out to Mulu, we came upon a dreadful accident.
A bus had overturned just round a corner and a lot of the people inside the bus were trapped inside. Michael was there trying to get as many people as he could out of the bus. He told me to go back into Addis Ababa to try and get an ambulance and a doctor or surgeon to come out. So, I went back into Addis Ababa and down to one of the hospitals to ask for doctors or surgeons to come out. They were dreadfully slow at doing anything, so I finally went to the Filwoha hospital and asked for help. They immediately got organised and came back with me with an ambulance and a doctor.
Michael had managed to get quite a few people out, but a lot was still stuck in the bus, and he dared not move them out until medical help arrived. There was some rope in the bus, and he had fed that through the broken window and under the roof of the bus. Some people were already dead but a lot more were injured, and he knew he must have help to get them out, so he spent his time trying to reassure them and telling them that doctors were on the way to them. I finally arrived with doctors and surgeons and Michael immediately organised everyone into trying to roll the bus upright—not too fast as then it might roll right over.
The usual enormous crowd had appeared out of nowhere and Michael organised them into doing everything very gently. Finally, the bus was upright, and he and all the people could relax.
That was when I knew that I must learn how to do artificial respiration. So, they taught me at the FILWOHA HOSPITAL how to do it, sometime later I was able to do it on a person who had fallen off a high ladder and had stopped breathing and I managed to save his life. And he was able to come and thank me.
So, the motto for this is …. learn how to do artificial respiration and you also might be able to save someone’s life.