I had my first aid workshop today at the office. The trainer stood in the middle of our meeting room and lectured us about the dos and don'ts of a critical situation where someone's life was at stake. We sat quietly and nodded when we deemed prudent.
We learned about the Bystander syndrome and that we should always call the emergency services before we jump into action and try to help the victim. The trainer then showed us a latex mannequin where we would practice CRP and occasionally joke about the material it was made of— plastic resembling human skin. "Strange remarks", I thought, with a grin on my face.
According to the law, you cannot ignore an accident, and you are compelled to call an ambulance, the police, or even the firefighters. Otherwise, you could be charged with negligence. Something you don't really want on your record, especially when you are a foreigner in a country that is thousands of miles away from the place you were born.
I have never encountered any type of situation like the trainer described. No pools of blood, no exposed fractures, no electrocutions. No head-on collisions, no burned victims. I raised my hand and asked the guy: "What about a heart attack?" He replied: "Call the emergency service." I lowered my hand and thought to myself for a minute: "While I call them and while they arrive, my colleague will surely have passed." I raised my hand again and expressed my thoughts.
The young man doing the presentation hesitated, bit his lip, and continued: "Well, in a case like that, you are most likely to freeze." So, it is better to call the professionals who have seen it all, and they will handle it." To which I replied: "Then what is the goal of having this 2-hour training if we cannot do anything to save a person from dying?" He answered with a joke: "Your company has to pay for you to be trained; it's the law. Every two years. And it's good for me because I get to work with living people".
"Have you ever had to deal with any of these situations?" I asked. "Yes", he replied with a long, sad, and aching face. "I was running my morning 5k in the park one morning. I would always go for a run in the park at 5 am when my wife and kid were still asleep. It was the only time I really had to myself.
"I left my apartment building at around 5:04am and began running to the park. It would take me two laps around the park to complete 5 kilometers, and then I would go home, take a shower, and start my day before I headed to work. As I began running, I had a strange feeling. Something in my gut was telling me today would be a strange day. I dismissed it as an empty stomach".
"An empty stomach is never a good sign of anything", I thought to myself. I raised my hand and asked him: "And was your gut right?" "Yes", he replied with a grim face. "As I continued running through the park, I saw a person lying down on the ground. As I got closer, I noticed a pool of blood. The iron filled the air.
At this point, I stopped any thought of raising my hand to ask questions. I just sat still as the rest of my colleagues did.
"I slowed down", he continued. "I saw the body of a male in the center of a 2-meter diameter pool of blood. He was obviously not breathing. I stood still and pulled my phone out of my pocket. Dialed 155". The voice of a woman said: Emergency services, how may I help you?" "I was frozen-still," he said. He reported the fact, and the lady told him to wait for the police and paramedics, as the body was obviously not breathing anymore.
The police arrived and interviewed him. He mentioned that the man had a barber's blade in his hand, and the police had called it a suicide.
I raised my hand hesitantly this time around. He said: "Yes?", I asked: "Did you think of performing CPR on the body before calling the police?", "No", he replied, "There was so much blood I was afraid I would stain my new shoes".
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