I stopped for a woman dying on the roadside and lost my job for being late, but when I came back for my desk, my whole life changed. “What the hell do you mean you were helping somebody?” – usnews

“She was walking,” I said. “Holding her chest. Then she collapsed.”

The nurse knelt immediately and checked her pulse, her breathing, the color in her face.

She looked up at me, sharp and steady.

“How long since you called?”

“Maybe two minutes.”

The nurse glanced toward the road, then back at the woman.

“What hospital’s closest?”

“County Medical,” I said.

“Four minutes if traffic’s light.”

The nurse bit the inside of her cheek and looked at the woman again.

The dispatcher was still talking through my phone.

The nurse leaned toward it and identified herself.

There had been some kind of traffic backup from a wreck a few roads over.

The ambulance was coming, but not fast enough for her liking.

The nurse made the call.

“We take her ourselves.”

Everything after that happened in a blur.

The nurse and I helped lift the woman.

She moaned once, very faintly.