This morning I ran into a situation that left me a little tense for a while(shook up).
I was downtown and going back to my car when a couple of people called me and pointed to a man and asked if I knew him. Of course, I had never seen the guy before. He was leaning heavily on the side of his truck and looked as if he would hit the ground at any moment. These people had called the police as they thought he was drunk or on drugs. We waited for a few minutes when I decided that we should get him on the ground before he fell and did damage to himself. When I approached and tried to talk to him there was no response. He didn't seem to know that I was there. I tried to ask him if it was okay for me to help him and tried to assure him that I would help. There was no response. I finally took a strong grip on him and tried to ease him to the ground. He was rigid. Finally I got him going in the direction of the ground and he had a soft landing. I got him lying on his side.
Still no response from the police. I finally said to the other two,"This is an ambulance call and not a police call." They then called the ambulance. The ambulance arrived in two minutes.
The EMTs went to work quickly and carefully. They got him sitting up but they could get no response. It was interesting that they went through all his pockets and took the stuff out. One of the items was a diabetic syringe. They quickly got him on the stretcher and in the ambulance and off to emergency.
I began to think afterward that I should have pushed the ambulance issue sooner. I knew he wasn't drunk. Drunks are completely relaxed and loose. There was no obvious odor of alcohol. This guy was quite rigid. We stood around for at least twenty minutes waiting for police. I only hope that serious damage was not done to this man by our waiting for the wrong people to respond. He was obviously in diabetic shock or coma.
When I got home I realized that I should do some renewing on first aid skills so that I will respond sooner in the next incident. It took me a little while before I regained my composure to carry on with the rest of my day.
