Riding to school last night

Yesterday evening I had a rather unsettling experience when I was riding the scooter to school for my 5:30 class. When I stopped for the light at the bypass, I noticed a woman in the crosswalk who was obviously very drunk. After a few stumbling steps she collapsed in the middle of the road. It took a few seconds to register that this had really happened, then I put the scooter on the side stand and ran over to her. I took my helmet off and was starting to call 911 when I could hear a driver in a nearby car already calling it in.

By this time, the woman had begun to seizure. I took off my jacket and put it under her head and just knelt with her. When she stopped, I stood up and made a feeble attempt to direct traffic around her.

While all of this was happening, two other people came over with a dog on a leash and said the woman had dropped the dog off with them and said she was going to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. It wasn’t clear if she’d taken the pills already or if she had passed out from drinking. The seizure could also have been from hitting her head when she fell.

The cops and then EMTs arrived in only a few minutes and took charge of the scene. I just stood around and waited for them to get her on a gurney so I could get my jacket and go to class.

As I thought about it later that evening, I felt good that I’d gone over to help. No one else got out of a car. But as I thought about it, I realized that the first thing the EMT did when he came over was check for a pulse. When I looked at her again, I realized she could have been dead. In the confusion of the moment and the concern about traffic starting to move around her, I hadn’t even thought to see if she was alive and consider starting CPR.

I briefly felt ashamed that I’d done a bad job of it but soon realized I have no training for emergencies like this. In a crisis, people fall back on their training, and without training, all I could think to do was stand there next to her.

When I talked with Mary about it, she said she gets to think about these things fairly often teaching junior high and has pretty much decided not to give CPR because of the risks of AIDS, hepatitis, and various other highly contagious diseases which are not all that uncommon.

I might make the same decision if it happens again, but I expect considerations like this are part of the training people receive. I noticed none of the cops tried to assess the woman’s condition before the EMTs arrived.

So, all of this has led me to think that I’d like to take a first aid class. They offer them at the community college, even up to EMT certification. Since I’m one who has never done well around blood or pain, I doubt I’d ever want to do anything like this for a living, but I’d like to have that kind of training to fall back on if it happens again. I might need it for someone I know.

I have no idea how the woman fared. They loaded her in the ambulance, one of the cops called out “Let’s clear the intersection,” and they were all gone in seconds. Other than the traffic snarl, it was as if nothing had happened.

I was glad she hadn’t puked on my vintage leather jacket. It’s my favorite.