Jumping In To The Rescue

Not that I’m much help

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

August 26: Deanna Bugalski 💋 asks,“Have you ever witnessed something as a bystander (a stranger in trouble, an argument turning ugly, someone treated unfairly) and felt compelled to step in?” Write about a time you crossed from watching to acting. What did you see, what made you get involved (or hold back), and what happened next?

Thanks, Deanna Bugalski 💋 for asking this cool as question.

There have probably been many times when I’ve witnessed something and walked right past.

But one memory sticks in my brain.

I believe I was 18 at the time. I had just left school and was still in dance classes at the time.

I was on my way to Jazz when I was driving into the parking lot and saw someone putting a body into the recovery position.

I parked my car and contemplated if I should help; how much help I would be; If I knew anything that might be useful.

All the answers I came up with were a resounding NO.

But I figured it would be better to ask if they needed support rather than run away. Selfishly, I would be eaten alive with guilt.

So I checked.

There was one guy who seemed to know exactly what they were doing, and one guy who seemed unconscious and was lying in the recovery position.

I walked over and asked if he needed help.

I don’t have a strong memory of what happened but I do remember I ended up talking to the ambulance on the phone.

After a wee while of sitting with this unconscious guy, who was actually conscious, he just had his eyes closed. I know this because he answered questions when I asked him about medical history and medications to relay to the person on the phone.

I learnt he was on antidepressants. That my first exposure to someone on antidepressants.

I mean, it wasn’t, but it was the first time I was aware of it.

I stroked his hand while asking questions and reassuring the poor guy. I had no idea what to do. The actual adult who was functional was taking his pulse and doing who-knows-what.

The person on the phone then said I needed to get a defibrillator just in case. I was panicked.

I looked up and saw a crowd of people standing around. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed them gathering.

I saw someone I recognised and asked them to get a defibrillator and they said they knew where it was. So they strolled off to get it.

Why didn’t they run??

Then the ambulance arrived, and the adult man briefed them. I assumed he was a paramedic too or a medical professional of some sort.

Then the poor guy's dad arrived. He stood back looking awkward. He didn’t talk to anyone, not his son, not the paramedic, nothing.

Was he the cause of the poor guy's depression?

I decided to be a paramedic after that. I signed up for a course. Didn’t make it to a single class, though. Whoops.

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