....to be fed up of many members of the public ignoring emergency situations?

[RebeccaBunchLawyer]

OK, I’m no hero tbh, or angel for that matter. Far from it. I’m actually a bit of a misanthrope and am hiding from my new flat mates as we speak (to avoid having to converse with them)..

But, the amount of times now that I’ve had to step in to help people when out and about now is ridiculous. I’m talking: a few elderly collapses, a few drinkers collapsing at bus stops etc, an elderly man nearly going under a bus etc etc.

I am not a nurse or particularly good at my first aid, and as I said I’m a real mean misanthrope, but I am always the only person to act when the shit hits the fan. Other people tend to stand their staring, gawping in a gormless fashion, doing nothing helpful, not even calling 999.

When the elderly man nearly enough went under the bus, I had to run (and I am a big lady!), scream for the bus to stop, then help the man, all while other people stared, eyes glazed. An army bloke did take over from me in the end (whilst I made the 999 call) as he knew more, but you get the gist.

Today, for example (slightly irrelevant but also not so), there was a road rage incident towards our bus driver. The bloke was effing away and the bus driver called out for one of us to call 999. I was the only person who did this; everyone else just stared or filmed it. Wtaf???!

Is this normal now- to ignore people needing help etc in everyday situations or are people scared to get involved? What if you needed help? I’m genuinely interested.

I read about the bystander effect as a kid and promised myself not to be swayed by it. I've interfered in lots of situations, from helping arrest a shoplifter to challenging a man who was beating his partner up in the street in broad daylight.

But my real area of expertise is calling 999. Because one of my DC has a serious condition, I've had to call an ambulance about 36 times. This makes me very clear and decisive about deciding a situation warrants an ambulance. Where others dither, I make the call. I think a lot of people just don't know what to do. Though some of them are probably just arseholee.

My DH will say I attract these situations! We we're recently in Florida in a theme park. DD and I were leaving the loo...a pregnant woman fainted on us...... literally!!!!!
I'm not a medical professional but professionals usually think I am ( I have a severely disabled child and have spent far too many hours in a hospital setting !!!!!)

As others have said, there's a lot of research done into this - look at information on the 'Bystander effect' it will help you to understand.

It's definitely not a new thing.

Where on earth do you live? Midsomer? Holby City?

The time I had to do cpr in public I remember shouting at the gathering crowd to F off unless they where there to help! Nosey gits

Lots of people freeze or pretend they haven't noticed!

You need to tell them what to do eg if a person is unconscious tell someone to call 999, ask someone else to support their head while you turn them over etc. Or just shout 'I need some help over here!' And allocate tasks.

However, there are times I wouldn't intervene and would just call 999 and wait for the ambulance eg if there are signs of drug use like needles on the ground or track marks, if they smell strongly of alcohol or if the scenario feels dodgy eg if it's late at night in a deserted area (sometimes a scam to attract people then they mug or assault you). I also wouldn't give mouth to mouth to a stranger, it's now not recommended as the casualty almost always vomits and puts you at risk of infections like hepatitis.

I think some people just don't know what to do. I always try to help, though I'm not the most effective. One thing that can make a difference at this time of year though is to shade people who have had accidents, especially if there's going to be a wait for medical assistance. I did this a while back for an old lady who'd fallen badly. People were kindly tending to her and an ambulance had been called but she was in direct sunlight, so I stood and blocked her from it. It happened to my dm a few years back and she had bad sun burn by the time the paramedics arrived and it was the last thing she needed on top of her injuries.

I'm a magnet too and will usually try and help. Great advice earlier about targetting specific people if you need further help - "oy you in the red coat, phone 999, yes you!"

Having said that, I live in a big city where there are a lot of homeless and a lot of drugs, and the advice from the various authorities is to leave those who are zombied out by spice alone, unless they are in an obviously dangerous situation or vomiting, in which case 101/999. It's hard having to walk past people lying motionless in the street, obviously out of it.

I was in a situation recently where a man was lying on the pavement in the middle town. There were two blokes standing over him looking lost. I asked if an ambulance had been called and one of them said that it might be drink or drugs. I said it didn't matter. He still needed an ambulance, so I called it.

I think they wanted to help but were clueless about what to do. A product of classic British diffidence, perhaps?

I'm someone who gets stuck in. My GP once told me that was linked to being a chronic depressive. People like me always assume the worst is likely to happen. So when there's an emergency we're very calm and just get on with what needs to be done. My GP said society didn't appreciate how much it owed to depressives.

I've had assorted incidents of this nature ( woman slipped on wet floor and broke leg, toddler sinking in pool, people collapsing). The worst one was an old man who was blown over into the road by a gust of strong wind. I stopped my car, helped him to the pavement and collected his shopping that was all over the road. The filthy looks and verbal abuse from other drivers who assumed I'd run him over..... none of them stopped to help though!

Some people freeze, some dash in to help and some run away.
I think this is natures way of ensuring some of us survive a catastrophe.

It’s human nature op
In an unexpected incident people tend to stare hoping someone else will act - it’s only on films that a stranger steps in to act decisively
Most of the time they don’t know what to do so do nothing

We had a lady faint at reception once in front of a full waiting room of people who just stared
Fortunately all dental people are trained to act - we did. She was fine

Good for you tho op.

You can’t get sued. But to be fair if I saw a member of St. John’s coming towards me when I was ill or dying. I’d be running or crawling away as fast i could. They are the one organisation I would want preforming first aid on me. Seen to many awfully handled incidents by them.

I did a St John’s First Aid course. By completing the course they told me I was covered by their insurance for the duration of the certificate.

They also said you can’t be sued for attempting reasonable first aid. Eg if you accidentally break someone’s ribs doing chest compressions you can’t be sued. You can be sued if you impersonate a medical professional and attempt a medical procedure beyond reasonable first aid eg if you attempted heart surgery instead of chest compressions.

Dh has a mini stroke in a cafe last week. The young girl who helped him & called the ambulance told me that only thecorebiius day she’d had to call an ambulance for someone having a seizure whilst she was out shopping!!

I wouldn't want to be sued. Sorry my home insurance wouldn't cover it.

There's been various suggestions re organ transplants that people who choose to opt out of donating organs should not be able to recieve organ transplants. I think it's an interesting idea.

In a similar vein, I wonder if people who think like the example I've quoted above could carry some sort of card which indicates that they would not ever like to be helped by strangers if they were ever in trouble.

I'm terrible in a crisis so feel very fortunate to have only come across such an incident once.

My friend and I were in a town we didn't know at an event for our hobby that was taking place around the corner from where we were. We'd been chatting, turned around and saw a chap on the floor having a seizure and bleeding from a cut on his head. My friend immediately called an ambulance while I froze because I honestly had no idea what to do. I vaguely recalled being told in the army cadets 15 years previously to just make sure the person having a seizure is safe and not do anything else until the convulsions have stopped so all I felt I could do was sit next to him, let him know help was coming and make sure he wasn't in any danger. Then I realised I recognised him from our hobby and he'd managed to tell me his name so my friend sat with him while I ran to where the event was to see if I could find anyone who was with him. I managed to find his mum and brought her back to where he was by which time the ambulance had arrived.

In first aid terms I was utterly, utterly crap but I hope I was of some help! The man in question was ok after that and was back in the event beer tent that evening with his parents who bought my friend and I a couple of beers for helping out.

I suspect that far too many people have no idea what to do. My school took the rather enlightened view that we all had to give up a lunchtime a week in years 8 10 and 12 to take first aid training and then renew it. I think it should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum - far more important in daily life than calculus - and the citizenship exam and driving test should be restricted to people that have a basic first aid certificate.

Having said that I've only had to use my first aid twice - in one case a man had an epileptic fit and banged his head badly on the street in front of me. The couple between me and him simply walked straight past as if nothing had happened. I lucked out though as he collapsed in front of a centre that offered first aid training so by the time I'd got him in the recovery position the trainer had come out and all I had to do after that was hold his hand and keep talking to him once he came to in a confused state and wait for the ambulance to come so I could confirm that the symptoms I had seen were probably epilepsy.

I always think of myself as calm and capable but once the ambulance men had taken him away I was shaking like a leaf and the lovely first aid trainer got his receptionist to make me a cup of tea. It also reminded me why we should carry plastic gloves as I hadn't and ended up having to do a large scale disinfectant job on my hands as he'd been bleeding from a graze on the back of his head.

Yes TarragonChicken I think you have explained it well there. Never the less, the perception still exists and I have done a first aid course. So I imagine a lot of people who have not done first aid are under this belief

and yet it was specifically stated, in at least my last 3 first aid courses, that it is an urban myth, and no-one has ever been successfully sued for trying to help / administer first aid. I think it was stated in all the courses I've done over the last 35 yrs.

I was once doing a yearly refresher First Aid course in my previous employment. We had a CPR lesson before lunch-after lunch one of the students had a heart attack right there in the classroom. All of us students froze for about 30 seconds. Fortunately, the Instructors stepped in and dealt with him-he was taken to hospital and survived.
But what a lesson for us all!
Dealing with emergencies is not just about "knowing what to do"-it is about mentally rehearsing the emergencies!