The Bus

I was on the bus on the way back from London and the man in front of me was looking intently at the building across the road, it then looked to me like he had cramp in his neck. Suddenly he held his neck and let out a huge gasp began shaking and fell on the person next to him. He was by all appearances fitting out, although I have never seen an epileptic fit before I guessed that it was. I have no first aid qualifications. So what do the people around me do? The man next to him pushes him off of him and gets up to stand elsewhere. The man infront of them shouts “Help, help, who knows first aid” a woman screams “Call an ambulance”. In spite of all the people surrounding him on a crowded long haul bus no-one does anything. I pull him up support his head, make sure he won’t bite his tongue off and hold him from behind so he won’t injure himself. I am guessing someone has called an ambulance by now. He throws up on himself (and my arms) and continues to fit. I slide one hand down into the front pocket on his hoodie and pull out his wallet. “What are you doing?” asks one woman “You can’t do that” says a man. By now the conductor is here and I hand him the wallet. “Open it and tell me his name.” the conductor does so. I check for a medi-alert bracelet or necklace he isn’t wearing one. I then pull out his phone and hand it to another person standing in the way.  “Call his mum and ask if he has any medical conditions we should know about.” She doesn’t know how to use a blackberry so hands it to another passenger who says. “What do I say?” she eventually phones the mother and we discover he has never had a fit before. He regains consciousness and has no idea what has happened he doesn’t even know he is in London he has just returned to the UK from Spain.

What shocked me about this incident is that everyone freaked out when they were not even experiencing pain. I was congratulated for my “quick thinking” by numerous passengers and the conductor, but I can’t help wondering why they just stood there shouting. One woman was shaking with adrenaline after the incident but in actual fact did nothing. Perhaps we should all have first aid training at school. 

On another side of things I began my first translation from Chinese to English to publish on this blog, however its so biased to be or propaganda proportions so I will find a more balanced piece first before you are all exposed to the more ridiculous side of the Chinese psyche.