“From where the feet grow,” “fuhn vonnen di feese vahxen.” An old Yiddish expression, a colloquialism, meaning to find the source or origin of things. This familiar adage goes way back probably a 100 or more years.
What I did in this story I did without hesitation. I felt it was the right thing to do, and it was, but had that old adage not motivated me to ask an important question, none of it would have happened.
In our auto body repair business, “welding” was a medium of repair for damaged metal on cars. Acetylene/oxygen was the primary welding method used. These days a special form of electric welding is also used, but the mainstay of oxygen and acetylene is a must for heating the heavier structural steel on cars.
When I was on the phone ordering a tank of oxygen, I decided to ask about it. I wanted to know if it was the same oxygen that’s used in the hospital. I was told it was exactly the same, and they also sell it to the hospitals. The only difference was the hospital tanks were kept nicely painted. I always felt that it might be different or maybe not as pure, but they assured me it was absolutely the same. I had wanted to ask that question many times in the past and I never did, but I’m glad I asked this time.
One day, one of our customers came to pick up his car, which we had repaired. He had his friend with him sitting in a car waiting for him, and when his friend started complaining of chest pains, our customer said, “I think he’s having a heart attack!” and rushed to call for an ambulance. I went outside and asked his friend if he wanted some oxygen and he nodded “Yes!” I rolled the oxygen /acetylene welding outfit outside and shut off the acetylene, leaving only the oxygen to come out of the torch tip. I then took a new dust mask and made a hole in it to place the torch tip into it. I had the oxygen now going into the mask for him to breathe. I asked him if the amount that was going in was enough, and he said that it was. I reassured him all the while that it was the same oxygen that is used in the hospital.
When the ambulance arrived and the paramedics saw this contraption I made, I showed them that I disconnected the acetylene hose completely from its tank and only the oxygen was being used. They took over from there and put their own oxygen mask on him and did what they had to do for him.
Before they left for the hospital one of the paramedics said to me, “You probably saved his life with what you did!”
About two days later I received a phone call from a family member of his telling me that he was doing fine and that they wanted to thank me for what I did.
I was 19 years old at the time and that phone call made my day, and I’m sure it influenced my life, “tsu zichen fuhn vonnen di feese vahxen!” To seek and to find from where the feet grow!
By David S. Weinstein
