What do you think you would do if...

JAYJO

If i am totally honest i would not have got involved. If he had been alone i would have tried to help but i would probably panic and call an ambulance. 
I picked an old man up off the floor a few years back. He was on his way to buy a bottle of whiskey. Must have been about 80 odd years old. I sat him on a wall and i could smell he had a few. He pleaded with me to go and get him a bottle from the off licence about 200 yards away. He didn't know me but was desperate enough to give me his money and take a chance. I refused and helped him back to his house. He lived alone.There i changed my mind and went and got him his bottle of whiskey. He was really happy at that moment. 

Sesh

Jalapeno said:

My nearest defibrulator is outside the pub half a mile away !

It'd be rude not to pop in for a quick half if you ever needed to fetch it. I'm sure everyone would understand.

Haych

A number of years back I saw a motorcyclist knocked off his bike as a foreign lorry driver was turning right into a side road across his path.  The driver couldn't see him from the left hand side of the cab and drove straight into the biker.

As I witnessed the accident I felt obliged to stop and help but by the time I'd turned the car around (it was right by a roundabout so hardly any time at all) and got back to the scene there were loads of people already helping the guy on the ground.

Police turned up then an ambulance and the biker was clearly not badly hurt as neither he or the lorry were travelling very fast and he was up on his feet fairly quickly.  Nobody seemed particularly bothered that I'd seen the accident happen and nobody wanted my details or my statement of what happened and in all honesty I felt like a fool for standing round so long just observing - I'm sure most people just thought I was a rubber-neck who'd stopped out of morbid curiosity.

So to answer the original question; I'd probably do nothing.  If the people already there were taking care of the bloke and everything was in hand I'd probably leave them to it.  I'd probably ask if they needed any help or an ambulance calling etc, but beyond that what else could I do except watch?

Emp_Fab

Snap said:

Fair point on CPR training though, even general first aid, can't say I'd know what to do. Thankfully my wife does.

Let’s just hope she never needs any help herself then, because Googling how to do it whilst she’s turning blue might not be the best option!

TheOtherDennis

Seriously, @Emp_Fab, don't beat yourself up over it - you got medical staff to go the scene, and they were there in a hurry. You really couldn't have done much more, they were more than likely there before the ambulance and if trained medical staff couldn't save him, I seriously doubt that you could have done (no offence to any skills you may have, just saying you're not a professional, that's all).

I understand that you'd think you could have done more, but it sounds as if you actually did as much as you could have done.

Tex Mexico

The work van I was driving was rear-ended by a young girl in a Ford Ka with her boyfirend's gran in the passenger seat. My van was basically unharmed but the Ka was knackered.

I realised then that I had no real idea of what to do in this event. I still did better than the young girl, who panicked and started crying and insisted that the boyfriend's gran was fine even though the old dear said her chest hurt. I put on my all-business voice and told the girl to call an ambulance immediately while I called the cops. The medics were there first and then the cops arrived and I dealt with them. The young girl meanwhile called her boyfriend, who was apparently a massive dick because I could hear him bollocking her over the phone from twenty yards away.

The old dear was fine, the cops sent me on my way and didn't even bother to breathalyse me because the accident was clearly not my fault.

On the OP subject, I think the question of an individual's responsibility in the event of a stranger's unexpected peril is philosophically interesting. Is it our duty as members of society to gain a degree of medical expertise to be drawn upon in the event we attend an accident such as the above, or are we trying to save ourselves future guilt in the event of a death we choose to believe we could have prevented? If we make this the default position, are we not risking exposing those who "merely" call an ambulance to accusations of negligence if they don't also volunteer to medically handle a dying person?

I don't have any answers, only questions.

musteatbrain

TheOtherDennis said:

Seriously, @Emp_Fab, don't beat yourself up over it - you got medical staff to go the scene, and they were there in a hurry. You really couldn't have done much more, they were more than likely there before the ambulance and if trained medical staff couldn't save him, I seriously doubt that you could have done (no offence to any skills you may have, just saying you're not a professional, that's all).

I understand that you'd think you could have done more, but it sounds as if you actually did as much as you could have done.

This.
fewer than 10% of people having a heart attack outside of hospital make it. According to resus.org.uk

Not your fault. The poor chap could have dropped down 5 minutes later when nobody was there. There’s always an infinite list of ifs, buts and maybes.

Haych

Tex Mexico said:

Is it our duty as members of society to gain a degree of medical expertise to be drawn upon in the event we attend an accident such as the above, or are we trying to save ourselves future guilt in the event of a death we choose to believe we could have prevented?

Don’t forget that stepping in to help in this day and age can also land you in hot water. 

I recall hearing about a chap who went to the aid of a female cyclist who has been involved in an accident and was bleeding heavily from an artery in her thigh. He put his hands in places he normally wouldn’t to stem the bleeding until the ambulance crew arrived and he saved her life. 

She thanked him by accusing him of sexual assault. 

It’s a complicated world.

Emp_Fab

Well, I'm already two in credit on the live or die front - though they were both down to chance than any affirmative action on my part.  My dad and I were out sailing many years ago and we just happened to come across two blokes in the water, fully clothed, about a mile offshore.  Their speedboat had sank three hours earlier and we got them onboard.  There were no other boats anywhere near that day, so if we hadn't stumbled across them they would have drowned without any doubt whatsoever.

Sassafras

Haych said:

Tex Mexico said:

Is it our duty as members of society to gain a degree of medical expertise to be drawn upon in the event we attend an accident such as the above, or are we trying to save ourselves future guilt in the event of a death we choose to believe we could have prevented?

Don’t forget that stepping in to help in this day and age can also land you in hot water. 

I recall hearing about a chap who went to the aid of a female cyclist who has been involved in an accident and was bleeding heavily from an artery in her thigh. He put his hands in places he normally wouldn’t to stem the bleeding until the ambulance crew arrived and he saved her life. 

She thanked him by accusing him of sexual assault. 

It’s a complicated world.

But removing her bra and fondling her breasts wasn't strictly necessary for a leg injury.

fretmeister

Sassafras said:

There's always a risk of breaking someone's ribs with chest compressions.
When he sues you for grievous bodily harm, you'll wish you'd left him to it.

This isn't the USA.

Your comment is bollocks. They wouldn't win.

fretmeister

I would always call the ambulance myself - if they tell me there's one on route then that is great. But I won't risk not calling them.

I knew a former paramedic and now First Aid trainer. He told me that for manual CPR without the aid of defibs / adrenaline shots etc he had "Played 4, won 1"

CPR is not very effective - but the point is, it is still better than nothing. I'd take a 1% increase chance of survival than none any day.

merlin

It's happened to me a couple of times. First on the scene. I did the right thing, the old guy had a really nice gold pocket watch and a couple of excellent Havana cigars. Oh, and £400 in his wallet.....