Four-Minute Miracle 1

#1
A group of people gathered round in a busy street. There must have been a spectacle that they stopped there during a golden lunch break. I was going to pass it by, but couldn’t shake off the curiosity; I went near to the crowd.

It wasn’t a simple sightseeing. A man fell down on the ground. ‘Did someone call for help? But still, even though an ambulance is on its way, it’ll have traffic at this main street. Then it’ll take more than ten minutes.’ I couldn’t just stand still, doing nothing. I quickly came closer to the man who was unconscious and examined his pulse. I couldn’t feel it. I tapped his shoulder, but there was no response. I looked around and saw a man standing close to me. I shouted.

“Sir, please call 911 quickly!”

The man promptly took out his cell phone.

Continuously examining his pulse, I asked people encircling him.

“How long has he been unconscious?”

“I think around two minutes,” someone answered.

It was a good thing that time didn’t pass much.

‘He can make it since it hasn’t been long.’

I corrected the patient’s posture on the flat surface, clasped my two hands, and put them on the middle of his chest. Then I pushed hard, putting my weight on my palms. One, two, three, four . . . twenty nine, thirty. Next, I needed to open his airway. I turned his face to one side, opened his mouth, and put my two fingers into it to make sure there were no objects in his throat. It didn’t seem like he choked on something. Hurriedly, I tilted his head back and lifted his chin up so that his airway could open, then I pinched his nose and started giving him mouth-to-mouth, opening my mouth wide.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

I did another chest compression. Sweat began to run down my forehead. I didn’t know how time went by. I only shouted in my mind.

‘Please . . . please . . .’


#2
My mom was a doctor. Although I had no dad, I did not feel the absence of him because my mom was a very eminent professor and doctor. For having such a great mom, people expected great things from me.

“Gyu-hyeon, shouldn’t you become a doctor, too?”

I’d heard this more than enough since I was a little boy. When I didn’t know anything, I didn’t care but as I grew, I hated to hear that. I didn’t like the fact that I had to live according to their planned scenario. My life belonged to me. I couldn’t live as they wanted me to live.

In fact, I lost interest in becoming a doctor, seeing my mom. My mom was always busy with her work in the hospital. She never got a chance to rest because of her patients, who needed to be taken care of, and her endless surgery schedule. Even when she got her day off once in a long while, she couldn’t have a good nap; because she did whatever I asked her, feeling sorry for not taking good care of me because of her busy schedule. If I anted to go to an amusement park, she went with me no matter how tired she was, and if I wanted something to eat, she bought all kinds of ingredients and made it for me.

Nevertheless, I did not appreciate her effort. I took it for granted, thinking that she was caring for me on her day offs because she couldn’t do in normal days. Though I was a young boy, I could sense that she worked as a doctor not just for money.

“I’m very blessed because what I want to do and what I have to do match perfectly.”

This is what my mom said to my aunt some other day. However, a doctor’s job was neither what I wanted, nor what I had to do. If it would deprive me of my personal life while saving others’ lives, I wouldn’t want it—not at any price!

As I reached puberty, I became rebellious more and more. I often slept out, which was no problem because my mom, too, didn’t come home many days. I looked for my mom only when I needed money. Whenever I saw her eyes, I could feel that she was trying hard not to say what she wanted to say.

It was the last summer vacation in high school. People say that senior students of high school don’t even have time to spare because of their preparation of academic aptitude test, but I shut myself off from studying long time ago. I decided to go on a vacation to the East Sea with my friends I got along with.

“Will it not be dangerous with only you and your friends?”

Though she did not want me to go, I would never change my mind. And my mom knew that, too. I didn’t answer to her question. I just asked her for money that seemed to be too much. Her face turned dark.

“You earn much money. Mom, you’re a doctor. Can’t you do that for me?”

“Gyu-hyeon!”

I turned my face to the other side and stayed still; I wanted to avoid eye contact with her. She was going to say something but she didn’t. Instead, she took out money out of her purse.

“Be careful when you play in the water.”

‘Am I a baby?’

Three days and two nights passed quickly. We had fun to the utmost on the last day, wanting to enjoy every minute. When it came to swimming, I was confident than anyone else. I was swimming further from the seashore. That was when I felt my body getting stiff; I was seized with a cramp. I tried to call the names of my friends, but my voice didn’t come out as I was floundering in the water. Fortunately, one of my friends saw me and he swam towards me.

‘I just need to endure a little longer!’

However, I could not float on the water; I felt tired and my body began to sink. A fear of death passed through me coldly. ‘Will I die like this?’ When I opened my eyes, I was laid in the hospital. It was dark outside the window. Someone was holding my hands tightly. It was my mom.

‘How on earth is she here? Where did my friends go?’

My mom sensed me and woke up.

“Oh no, I fell asleep. Are you all right?”

“Where are my friends?”

“I sent them home, fearing their parents might be worried.”

I wanted to ask her when and how she came, but I kept silent. Rather than feeling sorry toward my mom, I felt bad as my pride was hurt. It seemed like all happened because I didn’t listen to her.

The next day, I woke up by a familiar voice. My mom was expressing her thanks to someone. There was someone standing in front of her. ‘Who could that be? Is that the person who saved me? Then shouldn’t I go and thank him?’ I wanted to make my move, but I decided to lie down to examine the situation a little more.

“Where did you learn the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)? You’re a young student.”

‘A young student? The person who saved me was a student?’ I turned my head and peeked through my half-closed eyes and saw the person who was having conversations with my mom. He really was a student wearing a school uniform. I couldn’t believe that the young student saved me.

“I learned fire safety in my previous school before I transferred here. At that time, I learned CPR because my dream is to be a doctor. But I never knew that I would ever get a chance to use it in reality.”

“You learned it once, but you practiced it this good. You’re really great!”

“The lecturer emphasized the importance of CPR, saying that it was Save My Family Project.”

Hearing him, my mom was surprised.

“You took that class? How can this be?”