New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t need any additional publicity. The 8 million inhabitants of the largest city in the United States know his name pretty well.
So when a student fainted at a recent news conference, he wasn’t visualizing his name in another front-page headline. He was just doing what any Boy Scout would do: taking action.
Bloomberg, an Eagle Scout, obviously paid attention while earning the First Aid merit badge as a boy in Massachusetts, because he didn’t hesitate in his rescue efforts. First, he told a police officer who was already there to use his radio to call paramedics.
As quoted in a story in The New York Times, Bloomberg had some advice about calling 911 in an emergency: “You don’t want to wait. It’s more important to make that phone call than try to do anything, and people always make the mistake and do it in the reverse order.”
After calling for help, Bloomberg then checked to make sure the man was breathing and had a pulse—both signs were good. Next, the mayor talked to the man to coax a response out of him and eventually got him to sit up and look alert. The student was later treated and released from a hospital.
So, OK, maybe the story doesn’t have the glamour and intrigue of something you’d see in Boys’ Life’s “Scouts in Action” series, but it has a different kind of appeal. It reminds us that Boy Scouts across the country are linked by their desire and readiness to help others without pause.
Chime in: What do stories of everyday heroism mean to you? Let us know in the comments section.
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