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.
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.