Tonight, I watched someone die

Tonight, I watched someone die

I was driving my friend's car back from my apartment and stopped at a red light. I looked over to the side to see someone...well, it looked like he was strangling this other person on the sidewalk curb, looking up and gesturing and looking down. I realized he was looking for help and not committing a crime. Now, this intersection is surrounded by hospitals, so I immediately thought "Seizure" and pulled the car over.

It wasn't a seizure. It was a massive neck wound, spurting arterial blood several feet away. His friend was saying "Christian, please, hold on" and asking us to do something. I sort of realized that this person holding the neck was not a doctor...I looked down at this person lying on the ground, his neck and mouth covered and full of blood, and said to myself, "How can I give CPR to someone like this? What can I do?" I don't know if he was bleeding and I think his heart had probably stopped by then. I called 911, tried to get them to come over as quickly as they could, and let someone else do the compressions, but I kept thinking, "why are you pressing his chest? It will just make the blood come out harder." I ran to find the police or doctors or someone who could do something. I gave them my scarf to try and block the wound, and I waited as the ambulance came to take him away. His friend had also been stabbed, but not as badly.

All this over some stupid CVS goods. Some toothpaste. These were kids working in a CVS who had probably chased the robber outside, where he stabbed them both. What is worth the life of a kid, what is so important that he would take his life?

And me...why couldn't I do more? Was my assessment wrong? I don't think I could have done anything, but how can I know? I know CPR, but I don't know how to give CPR to someone with an injury like that. What could I have done? Probably nothing. I know enough biology to realize that a neck wound, that losing that much blood...I just don't know.

 

Giving him CPR might have just pushed blood into his lungs, but I have no clue.

 

Anyee, I don't think there was anything you could have done other than call 911. Although if the neck wound was spurting blood, wouldn't that mean his heart was still beating and CPR wouldn't be doing any good at all?

 

Don't think you could have done more than that. Putting pressure on his neck is the only thing I could think of. On the other hand, that could have cut off his oxygen supply. The throat is a pretty sensitive area. You did all he could ask for.

 

That is terrible. I'm sorry you had to witness that, and shocked and appauled that something like that happened. I suppose the only thing you could have done was put pressure on the wounds to supress the bleeding. I also understand there was probably a lot of shock and confusion. That is horridly depressing. Do they know who did it?

 

Don't think you could have done more than that. Putting pressure on his neck is the only thing I could think of. On the other hand, that could have cut off his oxygen supply. The throat is a pretty sensitive area. You did all he could ask for. Besides, you were probably the only person who stopped. The other 5 cars that was flagged probably kept going.

 

The first thing to do in such a situation, always, is to call for paramedics, and make sure that the scene is safe for you to get involved.

After you've done that, well, you have an artery on each side running up to the brain, so I'd try to put pressure on the one that was cut, and hope it slowed the bleeding. Then check for breathing (put a cheek up by his mouth, see if you can feel anything) and if he isn't, then check for a pulse.

If he doesn't have a pulse, then would be the time to start CPR, though if this was all caused by blood loss, chances are that it's not exactly going to cure him.

Though also bear in mind that you CAN cause SERIOUS injury doing CPR incorrectly, and that you can be sued for it. So if you really are interested in being prepared, I'd suggest a Red Cross first aid course in becoming a first responder. Basically they teach you the standard first-aid things so that you can (hopefully) be of some help before the paramedics themselves come.

That's absolutely awful Anyee, I'm sorry to hear that you had to see that.

 

Remember CPR is to be given only when there is no breathing and no signs of circulation. About the only thing to do to a injury like that is to cover or plug the wound.

That sucks to watch someone die. I wouldn't know but I bet it's not something many people could handle.

 

Thats terrible. I'm also sorry you have to see soemthing like this. Unless you were a doctor, i dont think you could have done anything.

 

There is always a feeling of guilt when you couldn't do anything more than would you did. We always wish we could have helped more. And yeah, you did more then anyone else. Was there anyone else at the scene? (other then the kid's frieind)

About that CPR thing, didn't some guy do CPR and saved someone's life only to get sued later by the guy he saved? There's probably more then one case but I remember reading about something like this.

 

A few people walked by, but one came right after me and he did the chest compressions while I tried to track down anyone who would listen to me.

These poor kids. You know, probably in their late teens, trying to get some cash by working...and that's it. One's dead and the other one injured.

 

In that situation I think you handled it exactly right. I don't want to sound like a total jerk but I'm not going anywhere near a total stranger who is lying on the street spurting blood. I'll bathe in blood for my friends or my family but I'm not risking AIDS, hepatitus, or gods knows what else to put my mouth on a complete stranger who has blood spurting out of his neck, and also filling the very mouth I'm supposed to pressing my own to.

Call me selfish, call me an *******, but I'm not taking that chance for some random guy.

Dutch

Edit: I don't mean to take away from the horror Anyee, I have been there to witness the death of one teenager, the crippling of another, and the lifelong trama of the two not physically hurt. I know how horrible it is to witness, and I know the impotence of having there be very little to do in the way of help. I think about that day every year at the time of year it happened, and I suspect I always will.

 

Can't really imagine what it would be like to see something like that, but I don't think you could have done much more than call 911. Sorry you had to witness that.

 

That must have been pretty hard to go through but i think you reacted better than most people would in situation like that.

Also try not to blame yourself if he dies (if he hasn't already). You did everything in your power to help him. i know most people would blame themselves if someone they were trying to help no matter how far along the victim was before they showed up.

You've already started talking about it which is good, i suggest phoning your parents or talking to your girlfriend ontop of that though. i find no matter how much you write about, it online it always helps to have someone at least listen to you in person about it.

 

Again, I'm going to have to agree with Dutch. I carry around a first aid kit in my car for any kind of emergency, but if there is a high risk for me, then I will not put myself at danger for contracting a virus/disease/infection that I would have to live with. I have too much to lose.

That said, I'm not really a chicken by any standards. If I see a man with a broken leg, I'll help him out and bandage his wounds, call the paramedics, and comfort him. If I see a guy spewing blood from his mouth and bleeding from the side of his neck, the most anyone can do is what you decided to do. And most people would not have even done that, they would have driven away.

I'm sorry you had to witness that at your age. I also sympathize for those boys. Life is a bastard.

 

You often break ribs doing CPR and if their heart is still going and you do compressions you can send them into cardiac arrest. He got sued because a lung was scarred by a rib scraping it......the scar doesen't effect the man in any way.


Anyee you did all you could and you couldn't have been asked to do any more. It is sad that a man lost his life over some toothpaste. Help the police if they need you to then sit back and hope they catch the guy who did it.

 

Wow, that's terrible. I'm sorry you had to witness that . But it really shows how some morons are willing to kill other people just for a few bucks worth of stuff.

And on a side-note, you got a nice avatar Pierrot le Fou.

 

I've been in the presence of three violent deaths, one in personal life and two on the job, and they're always a horrible thing to see. It took me a long time to get the images out of my head to the point where I wasn't always seeing them no matter what I was doing. I have a lot of empathy for you at the moment.

As for what you could do, most of the people here are correct. There's nothing you could have done. The CPR wasn't the best idea, though. CPR on a conscious person with a beating heart can do them injury. It should only be performed on a person whose heart has stopped. For the injury itself, putting pressure on the wound is the only thing you can do until help arrives. If it's the artery, there's nothing you can do at all to stop the bleeding short of finding the artery itself and clamping which requires instruments I'm sure you don't carry on you.

Edit: KOW, if you break his ribs doing CPR, you're doing it WAY too hard. Ribs bend naturally. If you push them hard enough to break them, you're not doing it right. Plus you shouldn't be actually pushing directly on the ribs at all.

 

You did exactly what had to be done. He was obviously not in need of CPR (at least not the C part) since his heart was clearly doing its job of pumping blood through his body . . . You have to get professionals on the scene fast and try to keep as much of that blood in his body as possible.

You did what you could; you did what was right. I'm sorry it happened, though. I hope the second kid comes through it all right, I hope they catch the killer who did the stabbing, and I hope that you, Anyee, hold together well after seeing and doing what you did.

 

This is tremendously sad, indeed. It would have been horrified for me as well, if I were to be in your place. I'm glad that there's still someone like you out there that is trying to save other people's lives. Hope you will be able to get yourself some rest.