to think some people are incredibly self-centred

[efera]

I was walking home from work tonight and about 30m in front of me a young lad out jogging fell over. Between me and him there were 5 people, he was clearly hurt and 4 of them just walked past him and one woman stepped over him. I went to him and he looked to have sprained his ankle (I'm no medical expert) fortunately he only lived a couple of hundred metres around the corner so I supported him home. I am totally aghast at how 5 people can just ignore a person who has fallen over whilst running and is obviously being hurt.

It's crazy isn't it? I've had a similar experience and was amazed at how people virtually ignored the injured person. Good for you for stopping to help.

My DF is diabetic and when he had a hypo while walking the dog. He collapsed was found by a police officer who said that about a dozen people passed her as she looked or him and they must have virtually stepped over him.

I guess they assumed he was drunk but why would being drunk mean you don't deserve and help or compassion at all? One phone call could have made the difference between life and death for my DF that night if the officer hadn't walked that way in time.

Good for you for stopping to help. My dh fell off his bike last month and a women actually tutted at him whilst she steered her buggy around him on the ground. I think he may have muttered something rude at her under his breath!

I've seen the same thing, outside DD's school, a homeless man fell over due to the soles of his shoes coming apart, and not one fucker stopped to help him. I was utterly appalled, especially as I struggled to hold his weight.

What are these wankers teaching the next generation?

'stepped over him'. Some people have no conscience at all. I hope they never need picking up after a fall.

There are a lot of selfish people about unfortunately.

Many years ago I was walking to work as it had snowed really badly. There was a queue of cars going nowhere on the road. I fell over on the ice on my backside really hard. Nobody asked if I was ok, and one bloke wound his window down so he and his mate could have a proper look.

It is awful, breaks my heart actually. On a funny note my dad once stopped to help an old lady carry her shopping trolley up a very steep hill when we were on hols in Cornwall and she started attacking him with her brolly!! Sometimes you really don't know how people are going to react.
We laugh about it now but at the time my dad was really hurt, meantally not physically - she was about 80

I'm not self centred

That's awful but I would like to think it is the exception rather than the rule. A few months ago I tripped on a paving stone and went flying head first with all my shopping. I wasn't badly hurt but did skin elbows and knees and it shook me up a bit. Several people stopped what they were doing to come over and see if I was Ok and help me pick my stuff up.

Not long before that I saw an elderly lady have a wobble and keel over outside M&S. I was a few yards away when it happened but I hurried over and by the time I got there three other people had also gone to her to help.

So I don't think everyone is as bad as the people you saw OP.

If you were to ask folk what I was, they'd probably go for self centred, but even my level of selfishness wouldn't beat my level of human kindness to help a fellow human in distress.

Just really bizarre and quite worrying because when it comes down to it, I'm quite a self centred cunt but still help folk in need

A while ago I tripped leaving the train station on my way to work. A stream of commuters either parted and went around me sprawled on the pavement or just stepped over me, including one twat who stood on my hand and just kept going

I think it is just dreadful when people do this. I deal with their utter selfishness (to my mind) by reminding myself of the old saying "what goes around, comes around" and thinking that one day it will be them down on the ground incapacitated being walked around/over with no one offering to help them in their hour of need. I think we should try to treat others the way we wish to be treated ourselves.

I remember helping a woman who has slipped on a curb, caught her shin on the bottom of the bus and ripped her leg open, she was on blood thinners so the blood was everywhere, it was raining and she was laying in the gutter getting soaked.

While the driver was trying not to faint from the sight of the blood, I'm trying to hold her leg together while another person ran to get help, a woman, got off the bus and stepped over not only me but the injured woman as well, she had to jump to get over us and landed in a bloody puddle next to us, splattering me, the woman, another girl supporting her back and another person holding the brolly over us all.

If that wasn't bad enough, there's a doctors surgery on the corner, we were spitting distance from it and no-one, not staff, nurse, reception or doctor would come out and help us. No-one.

1 member from the pharmacy came with the best first aid kit I had ever seen and then WENT BACK TO THE SHOP!

I was and still am DISGUSTED at that bitch that jumped over us, the doctors surgery and the rest of the people filming it on their fucking phones.

Those people that I mentioned that were helping me and the injured woman? It turns out we were all carers either as a job, voluntary or caring for family members.

So, yes OP, some people are incredible selfish and couldn't give a shit about anyone else what so ever, but I do hope everyday that there will at least 1 person who will help someone else when the need arises.

Some people are so interested in themselves/their music/their phone they don't even notice what is going on around them.

I could have been called self centred a few days ago- a guy had fell off a bike a small distance behind me, I heard a clatter saw he was on the floor but kept walking.

What you couldn't see was a few moments before he had slowed right down and stared at me as he went past. It was dark and badly lit area- I was concerned for my safety. I do feel guilty for not helping him even though I was on edge.

I do stop and help others if I can, I think a lot of people would help others too.

Unfortunately, my experience tells me most people are like this. I'm sure they all think they're really nice people, but it's so easy to not give a shit when nobody knows who you are.

I stopped for a homeless man lying prone in the street - he's still a human being. This was in a semi-posh residential area with lots people driving or walking past ignoring him. I thought he was dead when I first looked at him! He turned out to be reasonably OK, considering.

I had a motorbike crash and nobody called 999. I was uninjured (though rather dazed) but a pedestrian lay unconscious (he also turned out to be OK). You can be sure all the people that drove past slowed down to have a good look.

Also annoyed that nobody stopped the Christmas pressies I just bought from rolling down the steps at Notting Hill Gate tube station until I shouted STOP THAT PRESENT YOU MISERABLE FUCKERS. What did they think they were, mines?

There are special points awarded to the guy who stayed with me until the paramedics arrived when I got knocked over. He disappeared before I got a chance to thank him. Thank you, Batman!

And then there are the other times when you help someone who doesn't need it, like when I took a 5 minute detour to return to a roundabout that had a car on it with a man who had his head on the steering wheel. I didn't see until it was too late and had to cross the dual carriageway and come back around and when I got there, he moaned at me because he was parked up 'having a rest'! Who dies that on a roundabout? With their head on the steering wheel? A twunt, that's who, but I was still glad I did it as I wouldn't have been able to stop thinking about it otherwise.

I also once chased after a woman in a bar who had left her cardigan on the arm of a sofa, and was hugely embarrassed when it turned out she had just gone for a dance . Maybe I am too far the other way...

Whoops - Freudian slip there should have been "who DOES that on a roundabout?"

I saw a young man lying in the middle of the path in one of Hackney's busiest streets. It was about 9.00pm and he was IN FRONT of a cab company who could all SEE HIM!

He was Asian and in a shell suit and I reckon those two things stopped people helping him. My friend and I went over and he had one of those alert braclets on...he was diabetic.

An ambulance came and then I went into the cab company and bollocked the hell out of them all. All middle aged women they were too...so sad.

Nice one Icame.

I think if you're alone or vulnerable you can be excuse for not approaching someone but you could always call 999 and watch from a distance.

If there are a few of you there is no excuse for ignoring someone in obvious distress.

This is not massively dramatic but I have had a Bad Day today with many a (non life threatening) irritation one of which was the bastard supermarket trolley wheel jamming in the Tesco car park when I had done the most enormous shop and had tired DS3 (9 months) and mutinous DS2 (3) with me as well. Within 2 seconds and elderly lady came to my rescue with another trolley and a Tesco man rushed over and insisted on pushing it to my car and loading it into the boot. Was lovely

On the other hand, I once witnessed a very serious road accident (air ambulance serious). I ended up in the back of a bashed up car with an unconscious man with head and spinal injuries so that I could immobilise his neck (am a HCP). I had to ask a rubber necker about 6 times to put out her cigarette as there was fuel everywhere. Her response? "Fuck off bitch and don't tell me what to do." and [face palm]. Luckily I'm able to moan about this on MN and wasn't blown into the next county.

Bloody hell, some of these stories are AWFUL. I feel bad for my lighthearted response. Maybe it's because I'm from a rural Yorkshire town that I cannot comprehend people doing these things-it just wouldn't happen where I live. I am actually glad to be naive.
Also a BIG believer in what goes around comes around/karma/whatever you want to call it. live my life by it.

It isn't really true that there are loads of selfish people out there. Some may be but there is a known psychological phenomena known as 'bystander effect' that explains why most people don't react as you would expect.

It's the "bystander effect" - basically, the more people that are around, the less personal responsibility is felt by individuals. Everyone assumes that "someone else will help" so no one does. Psychologists did quite a few experiments on this in the 60s/70s (I think), using actors to play "mugger" and "victim" in crowded streets in New York. Very few people would stop to help. Apparently if you are ever in a situation where you need help, the best way is to catch someones eye and specifically ask them eg, "Can you help me up?" "Please phone an ambulance" etc.
Scary, as it would seem to be human decency to help others but it seems we're hard-wired not to!

My DH blacked out(epilepsy) and fell down the steps at Nottingham station years ago, no one checked he was ok at all. He reckoned they thought he was pissed :( It made me so sad cos he is the most helpful man ever at stations, always offering to help if he spots someone struggling without a second thought.