• Question: Have you been close to save someones life?

    Asked by emanresu to Joe, Juan, Kate, Rory, Rosie on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Rory Miles

      Rory Miles answered on 13 Mar 2014:


      Hi emanresu. In my personal life I haven’t. I like to think that my job does help to save peoples lives, but unfortunately I have no way of telling which I have saved. This is because the tests that I carry out are used by doctors to decide which medicine to give to people. Without these tests, the person may be given medicine that does not work, and in the worst case they could die from the disease. The doctors I work with occasionally give us lectures to let us know about some patients where our work has made a big difference on their treatment.

    • Photo: Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez

      Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez answered on 18 Mar 2014:


      Science-wise, my research won’t save anyone’s lives, but could be used in the future to help people get better after an accident or a sickness.

      Outside of science, my only hero moment was when I helped someone not get dragged away by a strong current into the sea. I held onto him with one hand, while grasping onto a rock with the other. He definitely thought I had saved his life. That said, my little brother (who is not that little anymore as he is 23) has twice rescued people from the sea. First, he saved his friend after he had an accident surfing. He crashed against some rocks and my brother, who was surfing with him, pulled him back onto the beach and actually saved his life (he was almost unconscious and was taken to hospital after that). The second time, he went into the sea to rescue a little girl who was struggling to stay afloat and brought her back onto the shore.

      So yes, I may have been close to saving someone’s life, but my brother, he has really saved people’s lives 🙂

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