I found this article absolutely fascinating so I wanted to post it myself. Just a number of instances where the Internet has come to the rescue and the various ways it’s helped.
Since the dawn of the first bulletin boards and chat rooms, the Internet has been slammed for a number of perceived social ills. Alarmists have worried about Internet addiction, and critics of networking media point out how a virtual life has replaced face-to-face interaction for some people. Yet the Internet and its growing network of applications have made our lives richer and, countless times, saved lives. Read on for the stories of eight people who are really happy the Internet exists because, without it, they might no longer be with us.
| Demi Moore’s tweet helps avert a suicide |
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 Matt Sayles/File/AP Photo |
Few have embraced Twitter like Hollywood power couple Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher. The star of Ghost and her That ’70s Show alum husband have accumulated millions of followers on the micro-blogging site, which allows only 140 characters per post. Demi used that power for the good last April when “sandieguy,” a female fan, sent her a tweet saying “gbye … gonna kill myself now.” Moore retweeted the fan’s message to her legions of followers, two of whom uncovered the 48-year-old woman’s identity and sent police to her San Jose, Calif., home in the nick of time. |
| Politician uses Twitter to rescue seizure victim |
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 John Amis/AP Photo Then Senator and presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, with Georgia Attorney General Thurburt Baker, left, and Atlanta city commissioner Kwanza Hall. |
Atlanta City Councillor Kwanza Hall saw a woman collapsed on a street corner in northeast Atlanta last May, suffering a seizure. Caught with a dying cellphone he didn’t think would make it through a call to 911, Hall quickly tweeted: “Need a paramedic on corner of John Wesley Dobbs and Jackson St. Woman on the ground unconscious. Pls ReTweet.” His followers sprang into action, called 911, and paramedics arrived a short time later to transport the woman to hospital. Earlier that month, callers to 911 had complained of being put on hold while an Atlanta home burned to the ground. |
| iPhone app helps save quake victim |
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 Jorge Silva/Reuters A recycler searches the rubble of a destroyed building for useful materials in Port-au-Prince, Jan. 27, 2010. |
American filmmaker Dan Woolley says a medical app on his iPhone saved his life after the earthquake in Haiti this past January. Trapped when the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince collapsed around him, Woolley said he used the app to correctly diagnose his broken foot. Then, using the light from his iPhone and following the app’s instructions, he ripped off a piece of his shirt to tie off a deep gash in his leg, and used a sock to bandage his bleeding head. Rescue crews pulled him out of an elevator shaft among the rubble 65 hours later. |
| Webcam audience comes to rescue of horse breeder |
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In 2004, webcam watchers came to the rescue of Bev Holzrichter, an Illinois horse breeder who had set up a cam so people could watch her help a horse give birth. Had she not done that, she might not be alive today. After the foal was delivered, another horse excitedly tried to get a closer look at the newborn and accidentally kicked her three times. Holzrichter’s husband was away and she could have lain in the stable for days before being found. But hundreds of horse fanciers witnessed the event being broadcast on her website and sent help. Local emergency services got calls from as far away as Berlin. |
| Suicidal teenager saved by Facebook |
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 Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press |
A depressed 16-year-old British teenager told a Maryland girl on Facebook last April that he was about to kill himself. “I’m going away to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while, then everyone will find out,” he wrote. The girl, also 16, told her mom. She didn’t know where he lived, but did know that he attended school in Oxfordshire. Her mother called local police, who alerted British authorities. Using Google and the electoral roll, British police narrowed the search to eight homes. Three hours after the boy sent out his message, police found him unconscious from a prescription drug overdose. The teenager was taken to hospital and made a full recovery. |
| Tourist lost on ice spotted on webcam |
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Looking to photograph a sunset, in January a 40-year-old German tourist walked onto a shelf of packed ice off a St. Peter Ording beach on the North Sea coast of Germany. After the light failed, the man couldn’t find his way back to the beach and feared he would freeze to death. He began flashing an SOS signal using his camera’s flash. The SOS was spotted by a woman watching a webcam of the beach that had been set up by a local tourism association. She phoned police, who drove to the beach and flashed their headlights to guide the man to safety. The man, who declined to give his name, and his webcam watcher were never identified. |
| Missing snowboarder found with help of iPhone |
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When Dolphin Music founders Jason Tavaria and Rob Williams went missing while snowboarding in the Alps in March 2009, the drama played out in the Twitterverse, but it was an iPhone GSP signal that saved the day. Michelle Dewberry, winner of the BBC reality show The Apprentice, was there with the pair and tweeted for help when they went missing. Rescuers found Tavara alive by honing in on the GPS signal from his iPhone. Williams was less fortunate. After an extensive search, he was found dead at the bottom of a 66-foot cliff. |
| Kidney donor found through Facebook plea |
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When a genetic disorder shut down John Burge’s kidney last year shortly before Christmas, the 50-year-old Cedar Rapids, Iowa, man found himself on the donor list for polycystic kidney disease with time running out. No one in his immediate circle of family, friends or work colleagues was O Positive and willing to donate a kidney. So his son Matthew, 22, turned to Facebook, the popular social networking site. His college friend Nick Etten stepped up to the plate. On Dec. 17, surgeons put the 24-year-old’s right kidney into Matt’s dad, giving the elder Burge a new lease on life. |
wow i didnt know that u had soooo many confirmed cases that is SOO COOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!! XD lol lol lol
i cant believe these people got saved by the internet. this guy sent a suicidal note and got saved. i will always look on your website to find out more. thank you for the info love you bye