What do I do now? Traumatic event.

[ZigZagIntoTheBlue]

On Sunday I was involved in an incident where a man collapsed in front of me, I had to give CPR but he unfortunately died. I keep thinking about it and just don't know what to do with myself now. I can push the thoughts away for a while but they creep back - did I do something wrong? Not enough? I don't even know his name and find myself obsessively googling the few details I do know but nothing has been reported yet.
Does anyone have experience in this kind of thing?

This happened to my brother and it was a friend of his. I have somewhere in the back of my mind that cpr only works in very few cases (something like 10%-I'm sure someone will know better than me), and I know the friend's family was pleased that my brother did what he could to help but there was nothing to be done, he died instantly and couldn't be helped. Please remember that you did what you could and knowing you tried will be comforting. Also someone (you) who cared was there in the last moments and they will be grateful for that too. 😘

An American fact but still 10%, it would have been pretty miraculous if you had saved him.

You did the best you could have in very difficult and stressful circumstances where the odds were stacked against him. I'm sure the family will be grateful someone made an effort. I've performed cpr twice and one was deemed successful ( though they died the following day) and another was dead but I tried anyway. If the thoughts trouble you after a couple of weeks then go and see your GP.

I was a teen when a woman committed suicide publicly. I did all could but she died.

It's truly horrible to be put in these situations. You have to realise everything you did at the time is everything you could do. Like the pp said cpr is actually really ineffective and near impossible to sustain.

Take some time to process it talk about it to others and just know the family would be so grateful you were there and did what you could.

It is totally normal for such a traumatic event to stay with you.

Well done for having done CPR - that was his only chance of keeping his brain/organs oxygenated until further help arrived.

You did nothing wrong, it was a brave thing to have gone for it

You will think less often of it, but it may well come back from time to time, and fairly random things might remind you again - don't worry, all perfectly normal.

The vast majority of out of hospital attempts at resuscitation are not successful - you gave him a chance, and that is all anybody can expect.

You did SOMETHING - and we're amazingly brave. Pp are right CPR rarely works . Especially is someone's heart has stopped because of a heart attack rather than trauma. But you tried and that is amazing. That man's family will know that there was no "what ifs" and that even though somebody tried he couldn't be saved. That will be of some comfort to them actually.

Be kind to yourself and maybe seek out some counselling - you need to be able to process this.

Thank you all for your kind words - I lost this thread as it didn't come up on threads I am on page.
I am feeling slightly better about what happened, but because it happened in a different county to my own I have no way of finding out what happened to the children present or when the funeral etc would be. I've been helping an eye on the coroner's court listings but don't know his full name... not a lot to go on