Check this out. Posted yesterday at ABCNEWS.COM

From ABC NEWS, at abc.com posted uyesterday 10/17/03

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.

Meanwhile, Costello was e-mailing back and forth with Long to figure
out where the sick woman was located. Costello finally got enough
information to call emergency services in Sarasota.

Breeden and rescue workers found Long on the floor, conscious but
unable to move.

The last message Long wrote to her chat buddies was that she was
going to the hospital. It turned out that she had suffered a severe
asthma attack.

"I love life and I love these ladies and I love my children and I
love my grandson," Long said.

Long's daughter said she can't thank her mother's Internet buddies
enough.

"I don't know how you repay someone like that except to pass it on to
the next person," she said.