Emergency situations- do you freeze up or leap into action?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by this thread. The OP suggests that people need to be better prepared for emergencies- learn first aid, have an emergency action plan, etc.

All good ideas, but it got me thinking, some people seem to panic in emergencies, others thrive. I remember reading in the Little House on the Prairie books as a kid (I know, superdorky) a few occasions where Laura said her sister was too scared to move, but she (Laura) was too scared to stand still.

Is this something that can be learned, or do some people just panic in emergencies regardless of whatever prepations they have made?

From past experience, I’d say I’m an action type. A few years back I witnessed a multiple stabbing* (long story-sometimes my life is too exciting) and my first thoughts were to check on the victims, take stock of the situation, make a tournequet for one, load them up in my car and drive to the nearest hospital.

I mean, I was panicking, but productively. There were a lot of other people there, but mostly running around like chickens with their heads cut off, so to speak. I’m not normally a leadership type, I’m very shy normally, but in situations like that I feel the need to take charge. Someone’s gotta make decisions, I’d much rather it be me.

What about you guys? Do you keep a cool head while the world falls apart around you? Will preparation for emergencies and/or previous experience in similar situations help people not lose it when it really counts?

*Everyone’s fine, and the assailant is currently in prison.

2

I have found that in emergency situations, I act, but it’s a distant, out-of-body type of thing. I move into action, assessing the situation, evaluating the circumstances, move through options and physically engage, but it’s as if I’m *watching * it, instead of doing it. There is little, if any, emotion tied to it.

With three kids, it’s amazing how as a parent, you learn to simply react and do what needs to be done, in spite of blood, others pain, the sheer terror you’ll feel later once you think about it, etc. Many times, I’ve looked back on something once it was over and thought, “OHMYGOD!” That’s when the rush of emotion comes.

3

From personal experience I know of two instances that seem to confirm your point. Some years ago an earthquake in Newcastle caused shaking of the building that I work in (many, many miles away). A friend who was the safety warden for her area, as soon as she felt the building shake, quickly took the elevator to the ground floor and she said she was across the road looking at the building before she realised that she was supposed to be helping evacuate the building. She decided that perhaps she should give up her position to someone better suited.

At a previous job a safety officer took a phone call about a bomb threat, and despite all the training we had been given, ran from the office yelling, “There’s a bomb in the building,” and ran through a glass door. There was no bomb but he ended up hospitalised.

Conversely me and my brothers all remain calm in a crisis. My middle brother when he was only about 6 or 7 dragged a drowned toddler out of the water. He had spotted him under the water, grabbed him and started dragging him to shore while calling for help. No one paid any attention until he was almost on the beach and they could see what he was doing. My youngest brother was shot in his own home and had the presence of mind to prevent himself bleeding to death.

I have been involved in an attempted suicide, a car accident where I was nearly killed, a child being run over by a truck next door to where I was visiting and have provided assistance at 3 major vehicle accidents (2 within 50 yards of my home and one involving a motorcyclist right in front of me). In each case I was able to see the stupidity of what other people at the scene were doing and was able to prevent bigger fuckups.

4

Yeah, I’ve found it’s similar for me, too. It’s sort of frantic, but unemotionally so. Otherwise, the sight of one of my friend’s bones because his arm had just been fileted like a piece of chicken would have sent me into a completely useless panic.

5

I think I remain calm, but there just aren’t a lot of times when emergency situations come up.

That said, I was thrown from a car once that flipped over. 3 others were in the car with me. I don’t think my heartbeat rose above about 70 bpm. I got off the ground, looked around, and took off for the nearest house to call an ambulance.

I’ve been in cars with people where just a funny swerve, or a close call gets some people all worked up.

6

I almost stepped on a water mocassin the other day. When I saw the snake, my reaction was to freeze, point, and then scream until someone told me what to do. I’m glad Mr. Snake was in a good mood because I was in striking distance.

In other situations, I’m the type who will run without going anywhere. Just like Scooby and Shaggy.

7

I have a natural tendency to act in crisis, and that’s been reinforced by training. Having said that, my actions are going to be better in some scenarios than in others. Give me a technical crisis, and I generally do well. (And I’m humble, too.) A fire, medical emergency, etc. Those I know what to do, and since quick action is usually best, I’m not too worried about what unforseen consequences my actions will have.

Having said that, get me into a situation where the danger is from a person, and I think I’d freeze. I’d like to think that in some of the cases that Monty’s original thread had brought up, I’d have stopped playing ostrich to try something. But I also remember how I responded to a ‘protest’ back in college where the protesters mimicked a Contra death squad picking up a person off the street, and driving off. I think they had either a cap gun or the like, since I thought I heard gunshots. So I dropped to the ground. By the time I realized what was going on, they were gone.

The point I’m trying to make is that I believe the nature of the crisis is also going to be a factor - not all crises are going to be equal to even the same person.

8

This explains me to a T. I just do not panic. I do what needs to be done, and when it’s over feel kind of like “heh, that was weird.”

I don’t know if this can be learned, per se – but I definitely think that it was a learned thing for me. I had a very screwed up childhood and I think it desensitised me to a very large degree. I mean, when I see blood, I am squicked out because of the whole bloodborne pathogens issue, but that’s it – it doesn’t affect me.

Although I don’t like being the one in charge in stuff like that, I always end up that person, because I just stay calm. It’s just in my nature. Hell, when I was having chest pains, I was the most calm person in the room – even the ER nurse was more freaked out than I.

I am CPR/First aid certified – just the smart thing to do nowdays, IMO.

I don’t try to take charge in situations, it just happens. People tend to just turn into sheep – and I hate people underfoot, so I always end up barking out orders just to get people out of my hair. It’s not the frantic helping thing that a couple have mentioned, it’s just that when I see a need for organisation, I fix it.

For me, all crises are the same. I deal with them, then move on. Sometimes I deal with them oddly, admittedly. Once, I was mugged at gunpoint. I didn’t have a purse on me, wasn’t carrying any money, credit cards or anything. I was walking home from work at 3am – who would carry money in that situation? The guy came up behind me, stuck his gun to my head and demanded that I give him all my money. It was just so surreal that I started laughing. I said “look, buddy, I don’t have any money on me. If you’re going to shoot me, it’s just going to be a waste of a bullet.” I think I must have freaked him out by not being scared. He took off running the other way. I had enough sense to notice his clothes and which way he went to tell the police – they didn’t catch him, though.

9

Yup, that’s what happens to me. My emotion swtich turns to the off position, I go on autopilot and do what needs to be done, without hesitation or distraction. Any decisions I make are with the cool detachment of Mr. Spock.

A few hours after the drama I get the shakes.

10

I’m pretty calm and able to step back and make an assesment to work through but there is one horrifying drawback, I laugh. I know it’s a sort of hysterical reaction but I can’t stop it. I don’t act hysterical but I am laughing so as helpful as I am, you don’t want me around in a crisis. And I am soooooo sorry.

11

I’m pretty good with people-related danger as well. I don’t know if I’d laugh at the guy trying to mug me at gunpoint, though.

I mentioned this in another thread, but last weekend, some drunk guys jumped on a friend of mine and started kicking his ass, and I threw my purse in a bush and jumped in, and grabbed the biggest guy there to break it up. After it finally got broken up completely (it turned into a spectacular brawl) a couple of guys came running back trying to start it up again. I almost broke my hand on one guy’s face, and the other claimed to have a gun. So I pushed him back and said, "Oh, you think you’re a big f$%ing man, then, dontcha?"* He backed down, but later I thought to myself, you taunted a much bigger man who claimed to have a gun! :eek:

So it seems that when people pose a danger, I rush in like an idiot. I’ll be the one who goes after the gunman and dies, allowing others to escape. And the media will go on and on about my bravery, and I’ll be sitting there in whatever afterlife there might be, thinking, “I shoulda just shit my pants and ran like everybody else.” :smack:

12

Leaper, in fact, I usually prefer working under pressure. For anecdotal eveidence here is a link of when I hijacked the MMP to tell people one of my better stories from last fall.

13

I can go either way. My boss’s tie got caught in the shredder and I just stood there screaming. On the other hand, I’ve done well with child-related stuff. It’s a crapshoot for me.

14

I never really thought about it, but as others have mentioned, it seems that I also tend to turn into a sort of automaton in a crisis. Emotions are put aside and it’s time to get to work.

I remember when a friend got a huge deep cut on his leg and everyone else around was freaking out and making really bad decisions, (one grabbed a filthy dishrag to put on the wound!) I just sort of took charge and got the situation under control.

The same thing happened when I was involved in multiple vehicle accident with fatalities. It was only after I was sure that all the other parties were taken care of by EMTs and firemen that I sat down and realized how close to death I had been myself.

15

For me, it really depends on what the emergency is. If it’s something that you’d normally only see in a movie, I’m useless. Not because I panic, but because I cannot process the information that is coming in - it just does not compute because it doesn’t fit in my daily reality. So I stand there like an idiot. An example would be one day when a lamp in my bedroom burst into flames - I’d accidently knocked it off a table, it shorted out and the lampshade must have been made of something really flammable, because it went right up. I just stood there, thinking, “Wow, so things really can burst into flames.” My mother happened to be passing by in the hallway and she ran in, unplugged the lamp, grabbed it by the base and ran out of the house with it. And I just stood there with my mouth open. The carpet under it had melted and the flames had scorched the curtains by then too. Maybe I’d have moved if I’d gotten burned … who knows.

Now, if someone gets hurt, I can handle that, especially if I see the events that lead up to it. If they faint or start having a seizure, though, I’m dumb again. People aren’t supposed to just fall on the floor.

16

I’ve always been a spring into action kind of guy.

That is until my ex-wife went into labor with our baby boy. I was so flustered I couldn’t even remember the name of the hospital we were at when I was talking to my Mom on the phone. My mom then asked "well at least give me your pager number. " I couldn’t do that either nor could I even remember the names of the cross roads the hospital was on.

My parents got a good laugh out of that one.

“Yeah, cool headed SHAKES.” :rolleyes:

17

So far, I’ve always been a freezer in a crisis; I just can’t move. It’s very frustrating, and nothing seems to help.

Except having children. Where my kids are concerned, I’m action-packed and I’ll move right away and do all that stuff people are talking about above. When the crisis is mine, though, I completely choke.

18

I usually am ready to act. It just seems second nature to me.

About 5 years ago, I was with my mom and we had just come from eating lunch and we pulled out onto the road. About a minute after I pulled out a car came up behind me swerved around me, almost him me when he cut me off. He was driving all crazy and erratic and seemed to have a case of “road rage”. When he passed me I said to my mom “that’s an accident waiting to happen!” No sooner than I finished that statement, he lost control of his car. It launched off the side of the road, flipped end over end twice and then rolled three times. It looked like a movie car wreck!

I pulled my car over, grabbed my cell phone and took off running across the desert (It was on the south end of Henderson, with very little development at the time) in flip flop sandals. I was fully prepared to give this guy first aid, if he wasn’t already dead. I called 911 and gave them the information That I had. The guy had been thrown from the car and smelled like a brewery. Just as I was getting down to start first aid on the guy, a couple of guys ran up behind me and said they were off duty paramedics and that an emergency crew was on the way started first aid on him. They had gloves and towels and a kit. I let them take over.

It turned out the guy had a skull fracture. Paramedics showed up, the police showed up. Me and my mom gave our statements to the police, they loaded they guy up and I never heard about it again.

I was just glad the guy only hurt himself and didn’t take another car out with him.

19

I’m a reactor. (Non-Nuclear, fueled by liquor in this case) Last summer, we took a trip to Lake Umbagog with a bunch of friends. One of them turned out to be pretty much a non-swimmer. The canoe I was in with him tipped (he jumped out after a very minor wave rocked the canoe), taking both of us into the water.

I wasn’t very worried about being 1/2 mile from shore, in the water, next to a swamped canoe, with friends circling in a 2nd canoe and a kayak, but once we realized he was beginning to panic a bit, we got a life preserver on him. It was a bit odd putting it on him floating in 40ft of water, 1/2 mile from shore, but I’m very comfortable in the water, was once trained as a lifeguard, and good in a crisis anyway. A nice guy with a fishing boat came over to assist us in righting and reboarding the canoe. No gear was lost.

On the way out of the campsite (2 mile canoe trip) we put the life preserver on him before we left shore.

Mrs. Butler is panic prone, but usually I can calm her down, and take care of whatever needs to be done.

20

I usually pause and take a good look around first. If a cop or paramedic or whatever is in immediate view, I let them handle things. Otherwise I do whatever I can while yelling orders at people who don’t appear to be helping to my satisfaction.
I’m not exactly calm, however. I’m likely to be rather short with anyone in my way.