Does life reward those who are kind and selfless? To help a stranger is something most will not do but those who will represent the kindness of all humanity. But sometimes, there are situations that are traumatic and can change the course of a person’s life. A stressful event influences the individuality of a person which remains for life.
There was a situation, once, I was walking home from school and saw a person lying on a sidewalk. I came up and saw a puddle of blood right beside the man’s head. Another man came up and asked what is going on. He had a cell phone and he went on to call the ambulance. At this time, I spoke with the man on the side walk. He was an older gentleman and he said that he fell down. He hit his head on the curb and was still bleeding.
As I had some knowledge about first and CPR, I held his head to the side, so that he could breathe more easily. In about 5 minutes the firemen came. They started to treat the man, as they were professionally trained in the first aid. Thinking back and of the reasons why I stopped, I recall that at first, I was not sure what to do. I thought to walk by but then, realized that I must help. I thought that if I was in this situation, I would want someone to help me.
But a major life-changing experience took some time after. I was taking some first aid and lifesaving courses, about half a year after the above incident. The course required some volunteer hours and I was doing mine at a local community center. The classes took place in the pool area and in the classrooms upstairs, on the second floor. On that day, I was in the pool area and became a witness to a situation that significantly changed my life.
The day was going, as usual, there were 4 lifeguards on the deck and everything seemed normal. Now, I realize that there is no real way to predict or feel that something is about to happen. A situation changes so quickly that it is close to impossible to prepare yourself for the things to come. At the time, I was at the shallow end of the pool, asking a guard about the scanning techniques when, all of a sudden, I heard a loud and long whistle.
One long whistle meant that it was an emergency and everyone should get out of the pool. About 5 seconds later I heard another loud and long whistle, which meant that either the guard was impatient with the slowness of patrons getting out or it was a real emergency and he could not control his emotions. By this time, I was standing at the shallow end by myself because the life guard who I was talking to ran to the deep end.
There is no running but in this situation, all regulations became unimportant. As I ran up to the deep end, I saw the eyes on the second guard of the deep end. It seemed that they will leave his face and never return. The other two guards were in the water, by the wall and they were holding an unconscious man. It seemed that the time stood still and first, there was almost no sound. I felt like wearing ear muffs and the air felt really dense and heavy.
Then, it was as if someone ripped me out of my semi-dream state and I heard the third guard yelling: “Get the freaking defibrillator.” I ran over to the guard office, as this was the closest location, grabbed a bag of first aid, which had everything in it and ran back. The guards were already in the process of doing CPR. One guard was doing the compressions and the other was doing the breathing. At first, everything was really silent, people were shocked and so was I.
At the moment, I did not realize this but I was trying to busy myself with something, as to not think about the worst. I started noticing that the guards did not have any gloves on, which was not allowed in training, but this was understandable in the present situation. The masks for breathing and whistles were scattered all around.
The atmosphere was very wild and people just dropped everything and started helping the man. I realized that the guards were doing a fantastic job; they understood each other almost without any talking. One would switch from compressions to breathing and the other would know the count of the other guard’s compressions. This was a display of a life-saving machine that could not fail. I was trying to think about what I can do to help but there was nothing.
The towel was already brought, the first aid equipment was handy and all I could do is stand and observe. There were four guards who would switch doing the compressions, as it was rather tiring but also depressing. I was not allowed to participate because I was still training. It seemed that the whole process was taking so long but in reality, only 3 minutes passed. The next scream that I heard came from our shift supervisor and it was directed at a guard off rotation.
This was to the fifth guard and I head: “Get out there and wait for the ambulance and where the … are they?” This added to the reality of the situation because I was being in a surreal state. I looked at the faces of the guards and they were grey and serious, focused on the task at hand and much tightened. It was as if they were all wearing the same mask but I am sure I had a similar one. About 4 minutes into the compressions, the man regained consciousness and the heaviness lifted immediately.
People started smiling and talking to the man. At that time, I realized that a single moment in life can change everything and any hesitation or lack of confidence can lead to an outcome which will be regretted the whole life. I felt as if the understanding was knocked into me.
That whole day I was playing back the situation, thinking about how I would have acted. This occurrence reinforced my view that preparation is everything. Most of the situations in life can be predicted and it should be the goal of everyone to train the mind and body, in order to be ready for anything. This has been my thinking all along but this situation proved how important can minutes or even seconds be.