Yesterday a pretty good wreck happened right in front of me. I was stopped at the intersection, and one old lady turned right into another old lady, sending the car spinning into the van next to me. The van moved toward me a bit, but didn't hit me.
It all happened in a split second, and all I did was stare. I stared at the smashed glass in front of me. I stared at the smoke coming out of the cars. I stared at the woman hunched over the steering wheel.
Luckily someone behind me had a better reaction to it and ran out to check on the lady, calling 911. I stared at her for a while. Then I stared at Mac for a while.
Then I decided I could help.
I got out of my car and tiptoed my way over the woman, who had regained consciousness, but was having trouble breathing. I talked to her for a while, and the three of us waited for the paramedics. It didn't take long for cops to come pouring in from all directions, followed by the ambulance. I felt quite guilty for all the times those sirens had whizzed by my house while Mac was napping and I thought venomous thoughts. They rushed in calm as could be, talked to her, checked her pulse, held her head, and I returned to my staring. The paramedics also pulled out a woman in the car next to me, her arm in a sling. I kept staring till the woman I had attempted to help started mumbling for her purse, which I had seen in the passenger seat. I tip-toed around the smoking car and wrenched open the side door as far as it would go ... which wasn't far. But I weasled my way in and brought it around to her.
Then cops asked me and the hero-lady for details; color of the lights, how fast were they going, who came from which direction, etc. I was surprised at how much I could not remember.
In the midst of all this remembering I head someone shouting, asking if Mac was alright. It was James, a friend from Mark's class. Then a friend from church, Janae, was jumping out of her car and asking if she should take Mac if I needed to go with the police. The officer raised both hands and said, "Everyone, Allie and the baby are fine! She is just a witness!" It was a little funny, but also quite sobering.
There are a lot of heroes out there. I don't think my immediate response is to be one of them. The woman who had initially run out to help and called 911 was three cars behind me. When I realized that, I thought, "I was the closest to all this. That should've been me out helping." But I just figured someone else would take care of it. It reminded me of when there was an earthquake a few months ago, and I just sat there in bed. Luckily Mark has hero reflexes and checked on everyone, but I didn't move a muscle. It also reminded me of a horrible story on the news ... a man had been stabbed and was lying on the sidewalk. He lay there for 2 hours. People walked over him, completely ignored him. He bled to death.
I worry I might have been one of the people to walk over him, my first reaction always that someone else would handle it. Good grief. I'm sure after I stared at him enough I would've decided to help, but he probably would've already been gone.
How do you develop hero reflexes?
No comments:
Post a Comment