Help me put this in perspective, please (disturbing)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, the other day I’m at work and my boss and I are outside because she’s having a smoke and we’re talking about work stuff. A guy approaches us and asks if we’d like to buy plants (you know the type, sometimes they have wall art, sometimes they have plants). We say no, thanks. He says, not even for your home? We say, no. He asks who would make the decision for our company, we say our publisher, who isn’t here right now, but thanks anyway.

All fine and well.

My boss and I start walking to our other office which is a few suites away and I glance back and notice that the woman that this guy came with is apparently having a little wrestling match with him on the sidewalk. That’s what my brain saw. I thought, how weird.

Then, she was screaming for someone to call 911. Just screaming. Hysterical. So, I pick up my cell phone which is hooked onto my jeans and call 911, shaking. Meanwhile, the person that had wanted to sell us plants is having full on convulsions and he’s on the ground. At this point, I’m connected to 911, and I’m saying the address, that we need help QUICKLY, etc., and while I’m on this call, the guy stops writhing and his eyes roll back in his head and they are open while he’s lying on the ground.

So, I think he’s dead.

I start screaming into the phone that he’s dying and we need help NOW. The woman assures me that they’re on their way. Now, some other people are outside and the woman on the phone tells me to roll him over onto his side; I tell them that (the guy who was out there I have since learned knew CPR and would have done it anyway); they do it and he starts spitting up spit and blood. But he’s breathing.

That’s the last I saw. He had about six people around him saying, hang on buddy, etc. I went out to flag down the paramedics. He was sitting up when the paramedics came.

Apparently, he just had a brain tumor removed and either forgot or didn’t take some medication and had a seizure.

This was on Monday. He’s OK. I’m bothered by how hysterical I was…specifically, that I said he was dying (when he might’ve been able to hear me).

I tried to recount it as honestly as I can remember. Perspective please?

2

I think you did as well as any normal human being could do under the circumstances. Some people are calm and collected, but I think most people lose it to an extent when faced with a sudden stressful situation - especially a potentially life-threatening one. You at least got through to someone who could help.

I don’t know if that’s the kind of perspective you’re looking for, but that’s what I’ve got.

3

You were in a very scary situation, you have no emergency medical training and you needed to communicate the seriousness of the man’s condition to the dispatcher. In that situation, you are allowed to be scared, to have adrenaline coursing through your body and to misdiagnose death. I wouldn’t worry too much about the man hearing you say that you thought he was dead. Even if he heard you, he probably felt pretty close to death, and he was probably really grateful that you got involved and called an ambulance…and he’s probably really happy he’s not dead. So it’s all good, you did very well, and the first time you are hysterical is a real eye-opening experience, isn’t it! Now that you know how you react, you can train yourself or get training to prepare yourself to handle future emergencies. Preparation is the key, and you shouldn’t feel bad about what you said or did. You didn’t walk away and ignore what was happening.

Glad to know that the guy is doing better.

4

Give yourself a break- that’s a really scary situation. I’ve had scary stuff happen and in some instances been incredibly calm and in others panic to the point of uselessness (like when I started a stove fire and did nothing but yell “FIRE! FIRE!” until my husband helped me.

I doubt he heard you say that you thought he was dying, but hell, that’s what you thought in any case. You did what you could under the circumstances.

5

I was OK when I was just calling for help; when I thought I had just seen a guy drop dead in front of me was when I lost it. The whole scene really haunts me, but I just keep replaying in my mind me being very uncool when I thought he was dead. For some reason, I feel really bad about that. I dunno.

6

Better to assume the worst and get help there as quickly as possible than to waste time trying to diagnose him. Don’t be hard on yourself, either for how you reacted at the time or for being freaked out afterward.

7

Dude, your name is “Sat on Cookie” and you’re worried about acting calm, cool and collected? :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously, you not only acted perfectly normal, but actually incredibly calmly - calling 911 right away was absolutely the thing to do and may well have saved this guy’s life. One thing I recall from CPR training is that they tell you not just to yell “Somebody call 911” since most people will just stand around expecting others to do it. Rather you should pick someone, point to them, and say “You - go call 911!”.

In this instance that wasn’t necessary since you took the initiative. We should all be so lucky to have such bystanders when we’re in trouble.

8

Our family was in a car accident five years ago ( tomorrow)! A lady ran a stop sign and T-boned us. We slid across two more lanes, jumped a curb and hit a house. My kids were in the back seat - in car seats, my husband was driving and I was in the passenger side. The car hit on my side, it all happened so fast all I saw was my husbands body flopping all over. I screamed, I thought he was dead. He looked up at me and yelled at me to stop screaming. That was the one time I LOVED being yelled at.
I didn’t have time to think or process what had just happened to us. My first reaction was to scream. When we got the kids out of the back seat I was asking them all kinds of questions to see if they were ok. When the EMT’s got to us, they told us to hold the kids and make sure their heads were kept still. I began to cry, thinking I could have hurt my kids by getting them out of the car.
Turns out the kids were ok. Hubby was mostly ok, and I was fine after about 6 months of physical therapy.

9

Thanks, ya’ll. And Mistee…wow. I’m glad you were all ok.

10

Sat on Cookie
I’d say you did nothing wrong. Some people would have turned around and did nothing not wanting to “get involved”. You called for medical help. Not to sound callous but he was the one who didn’t take the medication that would probably have pevented the entire episode. I hope this (and what other posters have said) alleviates your guilt.

11

I think a reaction like that is normal if you think there might be something seriously wrong with another person. I was fixing my sister’s hair for my mom’s wedding when she suddenly went silent, her eyes got wide and her entire body stiffened. I thought she was having a seizure or something, and completely freaked out. She was in a car accident last year and broke her neck and now she is paralyzed. They’d thought she had a seizure a few weeks earlier and I thought she was having another. Turns out there is something called autonomic dysreflexia that is common in people with spinal cord injuries, and that was what caused what I thought was a siezure. Anyway, I freaked out and a nurse was called and they lowered her chair and got her back to normal (I don’t really know how to put it. They got her back to an un-passed out state.) and when I saw that she was okay I just freaked out and started crying.

12

If I may say so, you did not simply do ok in the situation. What you did was incredibly courageous. Despite an almost animal instinct to stop thinking and just <whatever> you continued to process information on the phone and then proceeded to help in whatever way was possible to you. Please whatever you do, do not think of your actions as merely ok or passable.

You did what heros do. You did what you could despite overwhelming fear.

Congratulations. If you are worried that you failed some sort of test, or that maybe you merely passed, rest assured that you passed with flying colors. Thank you for the help you gave to that man. And thank you for proving that humans are indeed more than animals. I think it is one of the most important things anyone can do.

13

Yes, seizures are scary when you haven’t seen one before. Congratulations on handling it so well - “hero” is the right thing to say.

(I had a seizure a while back when I was visiting Zyada. She rates as a hero too!)

14

There’s a difference between seeing that someone is injured and in trouble and then seeing them look like they are about to be or are past the point of no return. When it’s sudden like that, it is extremely frightening, a shock really, and typically debilitating to the person watching. Your reaction was normal and you continued to function despite your terror, which shows strength. There’s fear and then there’s terror. I’ve been in a similar situation twice. The first time, I was working with a resident (At the time, I was working as a music therapist with people that were profoundly retarded and had high medical needs. ) alone in a room and I was working on getting her to vocalize in response to my vocalizations. She was in a wheelchair and suddenly she just dropped to the side, head down, shaking first and then absolutely still. What a rush. Scared the living crap out of me as I had to decide whether to run to get a nurse or stay with the woman or just scream for help or all three at once. I think I chose three, but I don’t remember clearly. (This was about 20 years ago!) But I will never forget that feeling of panic, thinking I’d killed a woman with my singing. And it turned out ok, I’d just never seen a grand mal seizure before.
The second time was when one of my daughters, who was not quite two at the time, launched herself off of her rocking horse and landed head first on the floor. Her father was less than ten feet from her, but just couldn’t catch her. She started crying, and then stopped. Then her eyes started rolling back and for a second she stopped breathing. I hung on long enough to call 911 and then I was completely and utterly useless. Hysterical. Screaming at my husband to not let her die (he was holding her). Just watching her eyes roll and her head drop and she kept trying to pass out and I kept screaming “keep her awake, keep her awake, don’t let her die”. It was one of the truly most God-awful moments in my life. Sheer terror. Thank God she just had a concussion and was absolutely fine afterwards.
But that type of thing has a way of staying with you, it’s traumatizing really.
If you really feel like it’s becoming overwhelming and you can’t stop thinking about it to the point where it’s affecting your functional ability, don’t be shy about seeking out qualified help to get you through it.

15

I have nothing to add, since the posters above me have already said it very well, and I totally agree with them. You are a hero, you did the absolutely right thing, stand up and be proud.

{{{{{Sat on Cookie}}}}}

misstee, oh, my! And I thought my accident was bad. I am so glad to hear you are all okay. {{{{{misstee}}}}}

Watching anyone go through a seizure of any kind can be very scary indeed if you’re not used to it or have never seen it before. {{{{{hugs}}}}} to all of those who have done that.

16

When the end product hits the air movement device, your actions will come as a suprise to everyone, includeing you.

Many moons ago, my co-worker F decided to have a bit of a seizure. Now F was not a small person, and the sight of a 300+lb man acting like a fish landed on a dock was a bit unnerveing. I’ve not been medicaly trained, but i do know a few things. My wallet went in his mouth, and I dragged/pushed/rolled him away from the doorway he was bounceing off off. Then I got to call 911 and spend my time talking the paramedics in, because they could not figure out our location. :confused:

The good thing to come out of it was he was fixed with a round of antibiotics–a bladder infection was nailed as the cause. It was just good luck that we were both in the office at the same time–we were normaly on the road, where a seizure at 70MPH would have had a far different outcome.

I didn’t get the shakes untill after everyone had left for the ER.

17

I’d just like to note that this is no longer recommended. Most epilepsy/seizure/first aid sites clearly state NOT to put anything in the person’s mouth.

18

To use a soccer metaphor Sat, you “played a blinder”. A lot of people would have walked away, others would have looked to someone else to “do something”.

When I was a teenager I was in hospital with suspected epilepsy, I was extremely shy and backward in those days, it was a mixed ward, and some of the patients had had surgery on their brains, I found the place forbidding. One afternoon I heard a noise and turning to look, saw a man having a Grand Mal seizure, I had no idea what was wrong, and I ran away. Someone else saw him and alerted the staff.

You were the hero …

19

you did very well.

you got help, you told them it was extremly serious, you flagged down and directed the responders.

when you hear real 911 calls that make the news, the people don’t sound like joe friday. it is a scary, nerve wracking, call; you want someone to beam help to you now!!! (scotty, where are you?!)

you are now going over the call and what happened, you are learning, you are thinking “i should have… i could have…” that will help for next time, you will have a plan.

don’t worry and over analyse. a man got the help he needed quickly because of your call.
you did a great job, give yourself a break and a pint of your favourite ben and jerrys.

20

Great job, Sat on Cookie. Screaming is fine, as long as you’re screaming something like “WE NEED AN AMBULANCE RIGHT NOW AT <ADDRESS>!”

The first time I witnessed a seizure was a strange one: I was teaching a class of about 20 college freshmen when one of them had a seizure in class.

I realized with a feeling of rising panic that (a) I had no idea what to do, and (b) I was in charge here. I said loudly, “Are you all right?” and when he didn’t react I ran over to him just in time to catch him as he kicked his chair over. Instinct kicked in and I held his head steady as I started shouting orders: “YOU–go get a doctor!”…“YOU–go get some wet paper towels!”…“YOU–go find someone who knows what to do!”

We got some wet paper towels (I’m not sure why that leapt to my mind as important), and a passerby who had an epileptic brother came in and helped out until the EMTs got there. The kid was fine, although he started vomiting after the seizure was over, which is apparently not the usual.

That’s what the EMTs told me that day: Don’t put anything in the person’s mouth, because if it’s soft (like a wallet or a finger) they’ll bite it off, and if it’s hard (like a spoon) they’ll break their teeth on it.