To be surprised nobody helped me?

[Mintybreath]

i was unwell a few months ago and for some reason it suddenly popped into my head the other day

basically I was walking home and suddenly felt extremely unwell- like I knew I was dying. It was the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. Really awful nausea and palpitations

i was terrified because i felt like i was about to drop dead on the street and i knew I HAD to get home. I don’t actually know why I didn’t even think to call 999, but I just kept thinking I needed to get home. It was 9pm, pitch black and heavily raining. I could barely stand up but forced myself to walk a few steps, and after a few minutes I immediately had to bend down low to try and feel less terrible, then I’d walk a few steps again, then I had to crouch low again. I never collapsed or lost consciousness thankfully but I was violently sick on the street and was visibly not well and in my head I kept thinking I was going to drop dead on the street by myself and I was terrified. It lasted for about 20 minutes and I somehow made it home,

To cut a very long and boring story short, it turns out I actually was unwell, I was in vtach at over 200

It suddenly popped into my head the other day and got me thinking how literally nobody helped. I was walking on the pavement on a main residential road and was visibly unwell- admittedly it was late so not like there were loads of people walking about but I definitely passed people, lots of cars, and a few times I was crouched and struggling to walk right in front of peoples living room windows. I know nobody is obligated to help, but I guess it just surprised me that they didn’t? Is it because they thought I was unwell because of drink/drugs or something and didn’t want to get involved? Or just because it was raining and late at night?

tbh partly my fault because I should have just opened my mouth and called out for help, I don’t really know why I didn’t because I remember thinking please please can someone help me, but I think the palpitations were so awful all I could focus on was GET HOME. Maybe my expectations are a bit off but would others have expected someone to help? Thankfully feeling a lot better now and hopefully I’ll never be in that situation again needless to say!

Or you’re just overgeneralising from a sample size of two experiences?

And one was rush hour out in the open and the other had people not able to move away.

I have a condition where my joints frequently disconnect/ subluxate and it makes me fall over , it’s horrible and the more I do it the more I creat I weak spot and keep doing it. Mostly people just give me filthy looks. It’s worse when it happens and I’m with my poor kids.
one time it happened whilst walking my dog and I lost contact of her lead and she ran off. Fortunately a lovely couple saw and helped me up and rescued my recalcitrant canine but it’s mortifying when people think I’m off my head .
at least I’d be enjoying myself this way. Falling due to crappy health is no fun

There was one time i saw someone laying flat out on some grass. I was on the bus with 4 children under 7.
We got off the bus but didnt approach him.
I rang 999 and the operator wanted me to go over and see if the person was breathing.
I explained i had 4 small children with me and i wasnt able to do that, incase the person was dead or if the person suddenly attacked me.
The operator wasnt happy with me at all. Actually she was rather pissed off.

The police arrived within about 3 minutes and the person was fine. But very shouty upon being woken up

Could you not have kicked their shoe and shouted at them? I assume the operator was angry that they were called out and used police resource for someone presumably asleep or drunk.

Not unreasonable. I stopped for someone once, she was drunk. I’d still stop again.

That's a great idea. She could have got two of the under 7s to kick a shoe each, and the other two to shout at them. Then there'd have been five of them (including PP) to fight them off if they turned abusive or even violent (like at least a couple of the PPs on this thread have described).

The operator's priority is checking the person who was laid out, whereas your priority was to yourself and your children @CanNotBeArsedAtAll . I would have done the same in your shoes.

I know of two people who came across bodies of people who looked as though they'd been dead a while. The emergency operators in both cases insisted they start CPR until the ambulance arrived. One refused, but the other reluctantly did as asked - even though they told the operator that it was a body and was cold. The autopsy report stated the person had died around two days before. They were devastated afterwards, couldn't face the funeral and later moved away - it was their NDN who they had been really helpful keeping an eye on them and helping out. My heart went out to them. Several of us at the funeral would liked to have thanked them. Due to this happening, if I am ever in a similar situation, I am not going to be pressurised into doing something I am not happy about. And I understand the reasoning behind emergency operators pushing people to do this, but they aren't there and I'll use my common sense.

Exactly this. My Dh had to stop the car to let me out to be violently sick in a country lane one day. Two horse riders stopped to empathise and give me polos, but were very wary and muttering about ’Too much to drink last night’ when I didn’t drink at the time. I was genuinely unwell. I think I would probably have ignored similar!

Self preservation.

For a moment I would consider if it was some kind of scam or trick that was going to have me robbed/stabbed/other horrible thing. You could offend them by offering help and end up punched, stabbed, they might accuse you of stealing their wallet... con artists are everywhere.

I would absolutely never accompany anyone to another location.

No i was not going to approach the person.

I was a Nanny at the time with a 1 year old, 3 year old and two just 7 year olds.
I was not going to risk the children either seeing a dead person or being attacked / shouted at.

I rang the police. They done their job which was a welfare check. Thankfully the person was ok