Strangers Save Life of Online Card Player
Oct. 17 -- Last weekend, three strangers, hundreds of miles away from each other, all logged on to an Internet chat room late at night to play a card game called Pyramids.
Little did they know it would turn into a life-or-death drama in which two of them would become lifesaving Internet angels.
Cindy Long was playing cards when she suddenly had chest pains and felt as though she were having a heart attack.
The Sarasota, Fla., woman's legs buckled as she tried to stand up. Because her computer was logged on to the Internet via the phone line, she couldn't make a call. So she reached out in the only way available to her: She pleaded for help from her Internet chat room buddies.
"I thought I was going to just die and nobody would know it because I couldn't get up and get the phone," said Long, who suffers from chronic asthma and systemic lupus. "I'm just glad that I was playing those dumb cards last night and chatting."
Two women from different parts of the country heard Long's cry. Alice McClanahan in Minneapolis and Jeanne Costello of Blumart, Va., are Pyramids regulars.
"There was a message saying, 'Help. I need help,' " McClanahan said. "She said, 'Someone call my daughter.' And I said 'What's your daughter's phone number?' "
‘I Would Have Died’
Though her messages were garbled, Long was eventually able to type out her daughter's number after several attempts. McClanahan frantically dialed Long's daughter, Jessica Breeden, who also lives in Sarasota, only to get an answering machine. McClanahan left an urgent message: "Jessica, my name is Alice. Your mother needs help right now. Get to her. Call me!"
She left her number and about 15 minutes later, Breeden called her back. McClanahan told her to get to her mother right away, and get help, which Breeden did.
"If she hadn't taken any initiative, I would have died," Long said.
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