One way to spend a Thursday evening

[muninnhuginn]

On my way home this evening, I crossed the zebra crossing and started to walk up the little pedestrian access around the bike racks outside of SCS sofas, 'cos I like to stare at the sofas after dark. There's a pair of legs visible, sticking out from the round the corner. No movement. I'm a tad nervous at approaching:  a fortnight ago, I nearly tripped over a gentleman sleeping rough beside the furniture store on the other side of the road, and disturbing someone's sleep isn't a good thing (and I felt like I was intruding into his bedroom). But my gut feeling was that there was something wrong. The bike jammed against the legs rather confirmed this.

The young man (boy, even, 16 or 17 at the very most), W--, was conscious, just, but not moving. He said his neck hurt and he couldn't move his arm. He was, but for being tangled in his bike, pretty much in recovery position, breathing, in fact coughing and wheezing painfully. I didn't move him. I sat with him and reached in my bag for my phone--which was in my coat pocket hanging up in the hallway at home.

I stood up. Looked round. No cyclists coming along the road. No pedestrians. Precious few cars and I was a bit leery of flagging one down. It was after closing up time for the stores and the security guards' offices on both bits of retail park were dark and shut up for the night. I considered jumping up and down in front of a CCTV camera.

Instead, I crossed the road, went to the first house with a light on, which was fortunately just opposite, and I could see a woman inside. So I knocked on the door, asked for help pretty incoherently, and two very helpful men, A-- and his friend, came out, phones in hand, and we rang for help. And kept W-- talking, including getting his mum's phone number out of him. A--'s friend went back to their house and fetched blankets.

The paramedic went into the wrong bit of carpark and had to be chased. We left W-- with the paramedic, A-- taking the bike into safekeeping, and the ambulance on its way.

I'm sure W-- will be patched up fine. I feel so sorry for his mum haring off to Addenbrooke's to find out what's happened to him.

Tea, now, much tea, and then, maybe, wine.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Well done you! You might have saved his life or at least made his recovery much easier.

[muninnhuginn]

Well, I felt rather inadequate at the time. But it's 7 degrees and falling, with a clear sky, and I saw one other pedestrian going that way, just as I went home.

I may finish that bottle of red: it's the thought of his mum getting that call that really gets to me.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Well done. And yes, his mum won't like getting that call, but she'd have liked it even less if he had been there another hour.

[were-gopher.livejournal.com]

We need more people like you in this world. Him Mum will be shocked and scared by the call, I know mine was when she got a similar one about me when I was 19, but they will both be grateful that a stranger took the time to care about someone enough to get them help.

[snapes-angel.livejournal.com]

You may have felt inadequate, but you performed adequately, given the circumstances, and may well have saved a life in the process.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Well done, that woman.

(I once rescued a drunk from the gutter down in Trumpington. I had just seen this dark bundle at the edge of the road, had thought it was just rubbish but stopped anyway. Just as well, he could have been run over in the dark before ever getting the chance to get exposure. He was unhurt so I just walked him back to his home.)

[snapes-angel.livejournal.com]

The Ninja of Birthdays sneaks in, visiting your lodge (which, or so she has just decided, is her name for an LJ blog), bearing virtual cake. May it bea good birthday!

[muninnhuginn]

Thank you, o Ninja of Birthdays! It's going to be one of those birthdays in installments, I think.

[snapes-angel.livejournal.com]

Birthday installments are good