They took her away on a stretcher, kicking and screaming,...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

…and I feel terrible about it. Like it’s all my fault.

Last night at around 9:30 I went out to the store. Just after I passed the bus stop, this girl – maybe college age – was walking past me, and fell. I mean, she fell off the sidewalk and onto the street. She fell into a snow bank right behind an SUV.

So I extended my hand and pulled her to her feet. Immediately she planted her face into my chest. I asked her if she was OK, and she said no, and explained what happened. Actually, by “explained” I mean she said an incomprehensible word, sniffed, another word, sniff, etc., in a rapid fire rhythmic way – like a really little kid who’s crying uncontrollably while trying to talk. And I could not understand a single word she was saying. Alcohol had robbed her of all liguistic skills, as well as a number of other motor skills. I pretty much had to hold her up so she wouldn’t fall again.

My first thought was to pour her on the bench and be on my merry way. But after interacting with her for a minute or two, I was convinced that if someone didn’t take care of her, she was going to die or at least get seriously injured. Traffic in this neighborhood can be a real bitch to navigate.

I tried to flag down some passersby and ask them if any of them had a cell phone. They all laughed and kept walking. Jerks. I finally managed to drag the girl to the bus stop (that took some doing) convince a couple of people to call 911. It wasn’t a tough sell once they saw the state this girl was in.

Then I was alone with her for a while. I was able to get her seated on the bench, and I did everything I could to keep her there. I talked to her, I pulled her back down when she tried to get up, I talked to her some more. At some moments she was calm and nice, a few times she told me she wanted to kill me. She wanted to kill everyone.

It took approximately three MONTHS before the cops finally showed up. They were quickly convinced that she was pretty messed up, and asked me several times if I was with her. No, officer, I just pulled her up off the street. Once I saw that she was in good hands, I went on with my business.

On my way back, I saw an ambulance. A rather large group of college kids were gathered, and they all thought it was pretty amusing. I explained what happened, and they were even more amused. “Dude, getting drunk ROCKS!” Ugh.

When I passed the ambulance, I saw that she was strapped onto the stetcher pretty tight. She tried kicking the EMT a couple of times and lost a shoe in the process. And at times she was quite vocal about her predicament.

The last thing I saw was her eyes. She looked at me like “Why did you do this to me?”

Wow, I can’t help but feel guilty.

I hope she’s OK.

2

Why the guilt? You did the right thing. Hopefully some doctor in the ER will scare her straight.

My SIL once told me there are angels all around us, only they’re people. It was your turn to be an angel last night. You probably saved her life. Hold your head up high and know that you did your good deed for the day.

3

I suspect that she won’t remember what happened. If she does, she won’t get it. Either way, you did the right thing, and hopefully someday something will happen to make her want to show the same compassion for herself that you showed her.

Vlad/Igor

4

You did good regardless of what she thinks. Obviously, she wasn’t in a state of mind to be capable of judging anything for herself. She was in danger, and you protected her.
Good boy!
Rrrrrrubber biscuit? Just kidding. You really did good.

5

tdn,

As you noticed, she was not in a good frame of mind. Whatever her (very possibly imagined) reason for freaking out in the ambulance was, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that she needs help, and a hospital sounds like the right place to get it. (Start with a drip of saline, possibly add some good 'ole vitamins and minerals and food, and she’ll feel a whole hell of a lot better.) She is definitely much more OK with your help than she would have been without it.

Repeating what ivylass, Vlad/Igor, and Faruiza said: you did the right thing. Even if you didn’t save her life, you certainly did help her out A LOT. You did nothing less than help out a perfect stranger in need. We should all hope to do the same.

6

{{{tdn}}} and thank you. The young lady needed help, and you gave it to her. At that time she wasn’t capable of looking after herself, and you did all you could for her, and more than most people did. You did that to her because you’re a kind, decent human being who didn’t want to let another human being hurt herself. With a bit of luck, she’ll realize that.

I’m glad you did what you did, and I tip my hat to you.

7

The fact that they took her away kicking and screaming on a stretcher was not your fault. If she hadn’t been in the shape she was in, you wouldn’t have had to call for an ambulance.

Just be glad that when she fell in the street it wasn’t in the path of a semi-truck.

8

Indeed. Why is it that the people who feel terrible about things are never the people who should feel terrible?

9

Don’t. You did the right thing. We take people to the hospital that don’t want to go all the time (unfortunately).

St. Urho
Paramedic

10

You done good tdn. So, don’t feel bad.

11

Jiminy Cricket, of course you did the right thing. I’ve been that drunk before, alas, and anything could happen. Injury, hypothermia if it’s cold enough for snow, rape.

That’s the part I don’t understand. Some people–ugh.

12

Thanks for all the reassurances. I know that if I faced that same situation again, I wouldn’t do a single thing differently.

But I really didn’t envision them strapping her down. About a year ago I ran into an equally out of control drunk, but he was far more belligerent. (He was trying to break down my GF’s apartment door.) The cops just took him back to his dorm. That’s all I was hoping for last night.

A while back, one Doper described the hell that was being forced to spend the night in a psych eval holding tank. I really hope she didn’t have to go through that.

13

Savannah’s got the right thought; that girl’s damn lucky she ran into you. She could just have easily run into a rapist, a mugger, or some jackass whose first thought would be to shoot a cellphone video of her antics and post it to YouTube.

I hope she’s soon well enough to realize how lucky she was.

As for the strapping down, or whether she ended up in psych eval–that wasn’t up to you, so it’s nothing for you to feel responsible for or guilty about. Once the professionals arrive, it’s up to their professional judgment. They may have decided there was more wrong with her than simple drunkenness (drugs? possible head injury?), and reacted accordingly.

14

I still believe the “hell” of a psych eval holding tank (and I would tend to believe that “hell” is a little overexaggeration) would be a million times better than trying to fend for herself in the condition she was in.

The authorities certainly don’t want to take someone in unless they believe they are a harm to themselves or others. Frankly, I wouldn’t want to take the chance of just taking her back to her dorm room only to find out the next morning she went on a shooting rampage.

You would have never forgiven yourself if you would have picked up this morning’s paper to read a story about a drunk coed raped, beaten, and killed in your neighborhood.

You done good, kid. <cuffs tdn on the chin>

15

Well, while she probably wouldn’t have been raped and murdered, it sounds like there was probably a pretty good chance of her either falling and cracking her head open, wandering into traffic to be hit by a truck, causing a disturbance that would have gotten her arrested, passing out and dying of hypothermia (depending on the weather) or otherwise ruining her day.

16

Listen…
CHA-CHING!!!
You hear that? That was a big deposit made in your account at the First Universal Bank of Karma.
You done good, amigo.

17

eh hem

You were instrumental in putting control of her person, her life, and her future into someone else’s hands. Of course you felt guilty.

You did the right thing and possibly saved her life, but, still, you took something essential from her.

Guilt is not a rational emotion. You do know you did the right thing, don’t you?

18

You shouldn’t have a problem with the results. She’s not dead in a snow bank, or from a car collision. A lot of bad things could of happened to her in that state. She got lucky that night, and don’t feel she didn’t. I hope you won’t think twice about doing it again.

I had to get help in northern Wisconsin once, or a college student would have probably died of hypothermia. It was about 40F and all she had on were small shorts and a tiny halter. She was disoriented and kept repeating one word over and over, which I don’t remember. She and the other’s partied at the campus, and she passed out in the car. She woke up and looked for a bathroom. She didn’t know where she was after using it. I called up emergency services, who got hold of the forest ranger for the area. After half an hour of my going for help, he arrives and puts her in the warm car. My friend had her in a blanket, and was starting to get some information from her before the ranger arrived. The ranger drove her around for a very long time finally he went where he thought the group was, and woke them. It was her group. He came back to us and said she denied these were her friends on three occasions, before he stopped and woke them. Luckily no one died that night. She could have frozen, drowned in the river, the falls, or the quagmires. Finally she had been trying to get in my tent and sleep with me, so she was an easy rape target. She would have passed out in 10 seconds.

19

*reminds self not to get drunk at tdn’s apartment :wink:

Just kidding. You did a great thing. It’s lucky she bumped into you.

20

I thought this thread was going to be about Britney Spears.

:frowning: