The one with the Homeless man...
I was just walking toward the bus stop, about the hand over some keys to my brother when I saw it. At first, I thought it was just another homeless man sleeping at the bus stop. Sadly, when you live in the city long enough, you actually get accustomed to seeing homeless people on the street. It was just a casual glance, and I was ready to quickly go back inside to finish off the dinner that I had eaten only halfway. But something caught my eye. There was something wrong. His entire body was shuddering. Sprawled over the floor, his hands were rigidly held up high, there was blood flowing down his head and from his mouth, eyes rolled up.
My attention moved away from the dinner waiting from me, and away from my brother who was just about to greet me as we met. I cautiously walked nearer to the man, in a hesitant circling manner. What’s going on? My first thought was that this man had been assaulted, but as I came closer, it became apparent that he was going through an epileptic seizure a.k.a. fits a.k.a., sawan or less appropriately, giler babi. I called out “Uncle, uncle, can you hear me!?” but he gave no acknowledgement of my presence. As I came closer, I saw that there was a little blood flowing down his swelling forehead.. he probably hit it when he went into the fits. There was blood flowing from his mouth and lips and I suspected that he had bit his tongue in the process. I shouted to my brother to call an ambulance, and after a moments hesitance, he pulled out his telephone and made the call.
I wasn’t sure what to do. From the looks of it, he was a homeless man. His shirt was worn inside out, wore no shoes and looked dirty from top to toe. His nails were black and dirty and he looked like he had been wearing the same cloths for months. Lets not even talk about his teeth. To be honest, it was a bit revolting, but at the same time, this was a man obviously in need. My brother stayed at bay. I walked forwards, leaned down and touched his shoulder, calling him once again, hoping he would stop the fitting. He gave no response, and not knowing how to aide a person in seizure, I just stood close by hoping the ambulance would arrive soon. After a while, his seizure stopped, his hands and body was released and he his entire body just softened. I briefly felt a surge of panic thinking he might have stopped breathing; would I have to start doing CPR now? Would this be the first time I witness someone die? As much as I wanted to save a life, the thought of putting my mouth to this homeless man’s mouth didn’t seem a very inviting idea. Plus, I didn’t even know how to do CPR properly, only in theory. But thank God, though his body softened, his chest continued to rise and fall steadily. I kept a close watch on his chest, practically willing it not to stop.
After 20 minutes, there was still no ambulance at site, and the sight of a bleeding body at a bus stop started to attract more and more attention. If this man had anything more than a seizure, he would have been dead by now putting his fate in our local ambulance. People started coming over to take a look at what they may have thought (and I strongly suspect) was a dead body. I continued calling “Uncle.. uncle!” to this man, and after a while, he was conscious again, though he mumbled incoherently and showed no indication of knowing where or who he was. Someone eventually went to the nearby police station, and came back with an ambulance with him. The ambulance that my brother called for 30 minutes ago was still no where in sight, perhaps having teh tarik somewhere before making their journey here. The 2 paramedics wore their rubber gloves and tried pulling the man to his feat, with no success. They searched his pockets and found a wallet, which was totally empty. I mentally noted that this homeless man had totally no cash, no card, no identification, nothing… and yet here he was carrying a wallet. Why? Something to ponder on perhaps?
With the ambulance at hand, there was soon a mini crowd gathered around the place, wanting to take a look at the action, but thankfully, the paramedics loaded the man into the ambulance (rather unceremoniously) and were off before a larger crowd could assemble.
So that was it, and I walked back inside feeling slightly better. I wasn’t sure which part I was more relieved about; the fact that this man was now getting proper medical care or the fact that I didn’t have to do mouth to mouth to him.
“Gosh, how can you be so selfish? If he did stop breathing, giving mouth to mouth would have been the right thing to do, and it would be expected out of you…”
“But I don’t know how to do CPR! And… and… he’s dirty…and his lips were swollen… and there was blood coming out of his mouth! What if I got infected with something?...”
“Yeah right. If it was some pretty girl lying there, I bet you’d be only too eager to give mouth to mouth!”
And the internal battle within me rage on for the rest of the night.
Times of emergency and need always bring out the best and worst in people. If this man did indeed stop breathing, I honestly do not know what I would have done. Would I have rise up to the occasion and do the heroics? Or would I cower and shy away? If I did the former, I would be able to hold my face up high with dignity, knowing I did all I could. If I did the latter, I would have been ashamed and only too eager to forget the episode, knowing that I failed miserably when the timed called for courage to do what was required of you. I will never know because it never came down to that, and I was glad it didn’t. I’m not sure if I will ever be ready for such a test.
posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 9:01 pm
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