Originally posted by Stryke 9
Anyway, I'm not entirely surprised they didn't send the copter in for that-it sounds like a nasty case, but what most people don't realize is that our bodies are pretty damn tough, and can withstand a lot of damage for a fair amount of time. A heart attack or seizure (massive internal failure) might call for the helicopter, but so long as there was someone who knew even the basic first aid that comes with common sense (you'd be surprised how many people lack it, but that's another story), and he was in a safe position at the moment, they knew he could hold on for half an hour or so.
you're right in some ways and wrong in others Stryke. you're right that our bodies can take a lot, but remember that our structure is very delicate. do you know how easy it is to break a person's neck? do you know how easy it is to damage your spine, causing paralysis or even death? falling from a bike at 70 mph, then having the bike fall on you, causing a 30 ft line of blood from your back and arms, and then getting flipped and having chunks of you get hacked off by the rough street... i'm suprised he did survive, and who knows if he even will.
you are right about not feeling too sorry for him, because he was a fool, regardless.
since we're on the subject of slow response units, here's another story i have to tell... this happened a few months ago:
Sunday early evening (around 6:00) me and a friend are standing in line at the movie theater (it's a pretty popular and big one, there were quite a few people) and some teenager about 18 or 19 walks out of the theater entrance doors, he's walking, and suddenly we hear *BAM*... we look, and he's just fallen down. the noise we heard was his head slamming into the concrete. everyone's just staring at him, and i was like OK wtf, no one's doing anything (10 seconds have passed since he fell), so i ran up (i was about 20 feet away) and he was on his stomach, i couldn't hear any breathing or anything. i was like "Hey dude, are you OK?"... no reply... so i take the chance (i shouldn't have done it, but i did) and turn him onto his back. i then checked his pulse, it was weak, but there, and he's breathing faintly. where he hit his head on the concrete blood is gushing out. so i take my jacket and hold it to his head and start calling for help (there's a crowd of like 40 or 50 people around by this time). so a woman in her 40s runs up and says she's a nurse, she starts talking to the guy, and i stand up and look around. i see like 4 of the managers of the movie theater standing in the circle watching with everyone else. i was like "hey, have you called the ****ing ambulance or are you going to just stand and watch him die?". so one of them turns and walks inside. an older guy also pulls out his cell and calls 911. by this time the guy's breathing has gotten louder and raspy, like it's hard for him to breath. his eyelids have opened, but his eyes are back in their sockets. the nurse keeps holding his hand, holding the jacket against his head with her other hand. anyway, the croud stays at about 50 people strong, and no one's coming.
about 5 minutes later, his eyes come back, and he starts crying and trying to move. he's still half unconscious, so he doesn't know what's going on. the nurse tries talking to him, asking him if he's been taking any drugs, smoking anything, if he's allergic to anything, etc. me and my friend are just trying to get him some room, cause the crowd's all over him.
another 10 minutes pass, and i'm starting to get pissed off.
5 minutes later it's been about 25 since an ambulance was apparently called. i said to the nurse "forget this, the guy's going to be dead by the time they come". by this time he's murmuring stuff, but i can't hear what... we can pick out "yes" and "no", so i say "does it hurt?" he says "yes" and carries on crying. i then go through the procedure to see if he's hurt his back at all... he hasn't, so i picked him up (much to the horror of the crowd) and me, my friend, and the nurse still holding the jacket to his head and holding his hand start making our way quickly to my car which is somewhat close. i put him in the back seat with my friend holding the jacket. my car's never gone faster, but i got him to the hospital in less than 5 minutes with no problems.
what happened to him? i don't know, but i'm sure he was alright. i'd checked his wallet, and he had an ID, so i'm sure the hospital got in touch with his parents. i never heard anything else from the nurse, who had gone by the time i arrived back at the movie theater. the fire department (yeah, instead of an ambulance a fire truck has arrived
) had arrived by now, and i told them what i did, and everything, and so they left, and i decided instead of seeing a movie (this kind of thing is stressful you know) i would get something to eat with my friend, then we'd go home and go to bed.
i guess for emergency responses you've got to expect them to take a long time to get there, because they do the best they can.
