I'm not taking up too much time tonight. My head hurts and I'm getting dizzy but I want to share this. Yesterday, as the result of a series of unfortunate event, I found myself face down on the pavement alongside Interstate 45 North. I was laying in a pool of blood that had come gushing out of my punctured head. As I laid there bleeding and too scare to touch my head for fear my fingers would disappear into my skull, I vaguely counted up to eight pairs of feet. Somebody in the little crowd called 9-1-1 but as I laid there, losing my lifeblood, and pleading for someone to help; no one stepped in. Nobody offered a towel, a shirt or even a rag and no one touched me to render aid.
First I was stunned and then I was angry. I just laid there and bled until the paramedics got there. Is that what society has become? There is no way int he world I could stand idly by while someone was in the condition I was in. If I did, my father would surely roll over in his grave because he always taught us to help strangers.
Seems I lost more than three pints of blood and the puncture was nearly 1/2" deep. No one even knelt down to talk to me. I don't understand such a reaction. Or I should say non-reaction.
I am back home this evening, my stitches have held but my heart is hurt just a little bit more.
God Bless,
- Robert
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Comments: 83
What is wrong with people today?
I certainly would have helped you - kneeling down, holding your hand, taken off whatever I needed to and held against where you were bleeding the most, stayed with you till the paramedics took you away and visited you in the hospital. People are such jerks, not all for sure, but more and more these day!
Take care of yourself, heal quickly and completely -you are in my prayers.
What happened, if I may ask?
Many Hugs
people are scared to get involved anymore cause of the blood ( aides) and law suits. It is a sad thing.
Pax ... Kihe
I couldn't refuse to help someone who was injured. In fact, I hope to be able to help someone as much as those kind people helped my dad. I'm really sorry people were so insensitive, Robert. Some folks worry about touching blood and others are afraid to move a fallen person for fear of causing a neck injury and paralysis.
I hope you're feeling better now.
So sorry this happened to you. I too, would have played Good Samaritan . I'm going to go out on a limb here, and be the nosy one. How in the world did you end up face down on the side of the highway to begin with?
I don't think that reaction is the norm. Sometimes there is a "crowd effect." In this case, because some others aren't doing anything, newcomers assume there's a reason and don't do anything either.
Hope you're on the mend.
Take care.
It could have been fear of being liable if they did something to cause you further injury-Tee
Good Samaritan laws have been on the books for years.
I agree with Amy (the 1st comment). We shouldn't judge all by the actions of a few. There are lots of good, helpful people in the world. No telling where they were when you needed them, but if you think about it - you were not alone and you know what I mean.
I hope you have a speedy and complete recovery. Take care.
People on the train platform walked around me. It was clear that I was in great physical distress, bent over double and gasping, no doubt red faced.
As it turned out I was not having a heart attack but just suffering the first evidence of pleurisy (an infection, often viral, that inflames the pleura, the bag in which your lungs are).
This was not as serious a moment as your head injury of yesterday, to be sure, but illustrated the same dynamic: most people will not help.
There are any number of reasons for this: fear (general, non-specific); fear of something specific (infection from your blood, the possibility that I might have been faking my apparent heart attack in order to run some scam on a would be rescuer, lawsuits that might arise from assistance the fails to save a life or actually goes wrong and causes death, many other possibilities); indifference; the ingrained conviction especially amongst urban dwellers that one should just never get involved; physical revulsion at the sight of blood; paralysis caused by the shocking nature of the event; sheer stupidity preventing them from knowing what to do.
We live in a complex world filled with flawed human beings which leads to a lot of misadventures that all too often result in calamity.
Thank God help did arrive and you received the aid you needed in time. Sorry for your pain and suffering and trauma. Hope that you are quick to heal and up and at 'em in no time.
But here is the good that may have come out of all that bad: "As I laid there bleeding and too scare to touch my head for fear my fingers would disappear into my skull...". These are words that indicate a survival instinct still very strong within you. Given your recents posts, this is a good sign.
God does work in mysterious ways his wonders to achieve. He speaks to us in signs, in cryptic ways, in disuised blessings. Perhaps what happened to you yesterday, from the serious physical injury to the blatant indifference of your fellow human beings, was a sign. Maybe He is trying to tell you something. Maybe the lesson isn't over yet. Maybe a door you can't quite see has been opened somewhere.
Pay attention. Watch carefully. Be open to new perceptions and new understanding.
Be well.
God took care of you and opened the eyes of some of them. Hope you run into one of them so you can give them a hug and dispel their guilt.
I'm glad you're OK my man.
If you think for one second that you're leaving this earth without a fight from me, you don't know me very well.
I'm very stubborn, you've been warned.
Expect some notice from me soon.
Hugs, A.
Thanks for posting this to my group, Anythingwriting
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There was someone there that was by your side the entire time.
A precious soul named the Lord.
He kept you alive for a purpose.
And, you know what that is.
Just look deep and you will see.
People are lawsuit crazy. And some crazy lawyer, could get hold of you and ask if you wish to sue the person who helped you, by interfering with your right to die. It's happened, elsewhere.
In most places, people will help. One of the first things we're taught in First Aid classes, is to try to make contact with the person on the ground. Then check for breathing, etc.
Hey.. someone wants to sue me for trying to help. To heck with 'em. Ya can't get money from someone who barely knows what it is anymore.
You know somedays ago we had a news here. That of a man lying wounded on the National Highway and every cars passing him and let him bleed to his death because nobody dares to 'get involve'.
I am sorry about this. Robert take care.
I think this is most likely the case
It's hard to be a good sameritan now a days when the person who is helping somebody can be sued if things don't go right.-Sheryl
Good Samaritan laws protect everyone except healthcare professionals. Even then, they are usually protected unless someone can prove that they deliberatly ignored their own training.
IE a doctor would know to not move his head until it could be stabalized and to grab something to put pressure on the wound to help stop the blood. They'd also know how to do that. IF a doctor started moving him around for no apparent reason, like he didn't need CPR, and then just ignored the bleeding in doing so, he might have a case.
However, if a doctor ripped off their own shirt and used it to put pressure on the wound, and tried to stabalize his head while doing so, and did everything they could right in the circumstances provided. Then, they too would be covered as a good samaritan.
Please take a moment to do another post telling us why you were on the pavement, bleeding, with a hole in your head (and your heart). The curious need to know more!!!
Maybe this was God's way of teaching - I am sure those people standing by will be kept awake wondering 'why didn't I do something?'
I was trying to think of what I could have used, had I been there, to stop the blood flow. I'm back to wearing t-shirts in the mild weather, don't carry rags or towels. I'm leaving in a few minutes and I'm going to go put some towels in my trunk. While I've never had to use them in the past, it now strikes me that I could save someone's life some day.
I can't imagine why no one talked to you. It would have been simple to say the paramedics were on their way.
Just glad you are still with us.
I'm just glad your still with us, Robert. Hope you get to feeling better very soon.
When I was still in the Army, the post legal guys had to warn all of us not to help people if they were injured because of a growing number of lawsuits towards good Samaritans. Some states have laws that protect such people but many don't. Since so many of us had received decent medical training, GIs were often helping people. Until the lawsuits started that is...
1. Say two guys hopped up on drugs are swinging knives at each other. Say one goes down and the other runs off. The people left behind may not want to get too close to the other guy with the knife. Or the gun. Or the anthrax.
2. Say the bystanders are being directed forcefully by one person -- a cop, or a guy with a bigger knife -- to not touch the victim for all of the reasons (medical & legal) offered in the above comments.
3. Say it's one of those situations where to move or aid the victim will result in a bomb detonation. Hey, it happens in the movies.
4. Say the victim isn't really able to see or understand any of that because he's out of commission and can't form rational thoughts in his condition.
The point is you shouldn't write off all of humanity -- or even allow us to -- without the whole story being made clear. Sorry to exaggerate. You know I wish you all the best, and all the best medical attention.
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.
In the end, it is the person you become, not the things you have achieved, that is the most important.
You know how I feel about this. God bless you and keep you in his light.
Don't give up.
I am sorry for your ordeal ... I'm glad it was an accident, though.
Some people are jerks and some would have helped had they been there. Some are just not self assured enough to take charge in a situation like that; and others just didn't know what might be safe to do and what just would be better to not do. Some have already been conditioned to think, believe, and expect that someone else would take care of the problem (you, in this case). +shrug+
Also, aside from the legal aspects, think of the guilt and sorrow factor for them if they had touched you and you took a turn for the worse. They may face legal problems but worse for them would be feeling as if it was their fault that something worse had happened to you.
Something crossed my mind irt why someone didn't help you ... well, of course someone did help you since you were home and bandaged when you wrote this. But anyway, you had a head injury and while you may think you remember things clearly, maybe you don't really. Maybe someone did talk to you, and you didn't hear or don't remember. Maybe someone was kneeling near you and you couldn't see them for some reason?. +shrug+
I could be wrong, but it is one explanation of why people "didn't" help.
Sorry ... such a sad commentary on modern "man."
Btw ... like others have said, I would not have let you lay there alone. I wouldn't have moved you or touched you in any way that would have moved your head or neck or upper body ... but I would have found a way to make sure you knew I was there right beside you, waiting for more qualified help.
"Lee, even though each new heartbeat brought another gush of blood from my head, I never lost consciousness and had a coherrent conversation with the paramedics once they arrived..."
I hope you're feeling better! Hope the head has cleared.
Sounds like you were in need of a Good Samaritan. Bummer he didn't show up right away!
to be perfectly honest .... my first instinct would be to help in some way .... but I'm not sure if I actually WOULD be able to act on it ..... I don't know if I would have felt adequate in attempting to render aid of any kind to a stranger ...... and perhaps FEAR would have kept me a silent bystander, like the people in your situation ...... WANTING to help, but not knowing what to do .... not being able to think clearly .... and yet ..... not wanting to leave [even though I would have felt terrible and uncertain, just standing there] until I knew that the person had the help that he/she needed .... like EMTs or an ambulance, or something .......
if you look at it like THAT .... then the people who stood silently by while you were laying there ..... were feeling helpless and not knowing what to do ..... or what to say ..... but not wanting to leave until they were assured that you had the proper help that none of them felt they were capable of giving .........
it doesn't occur to many people that somebody who is hurt MAY need a reassuring touch or voice ..... someone to tell them that everything will be all right ..... even if they are just guessing b/c they really don't know ........
I hope that you have had sufficient time to heal the wound in your head ..... and to forgive those who stood by so helplessly when you were injured ..... thank heavens that at least one person had the presence of mind to call 911, even if they did nothing else to ease your suffering .....
take care ....
Since I’m in the middle of Finals week, I hate to admit, but I must give in to the temptation of leaving a generic comment
But to give it a little personal touch, I added some artwork for you to enjoy!
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