Definitions
Bystander: A person who is present at an event or incident but does not take part
Effect:1. Something brought about by a cause or agent; a result. 2. The power to produce an outcome or achieve a result; influence
Bystander Effect: The bystander effect or Genovese syndrome is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases where individuals do not offer any means of help in an emergency situation to the victim when other people are present.
For some reason or another, when we get together we get stupid. It happens in our house all the time. We start in on the Bridesmaids quotes and the voices and we become interwoven and indistinguishable from one another. It can be a form of solidarity to have those things, those jokes and moments that make collective memories and form a knowing. We start quotes with the expectation that someone else will finish them.
Now and again (ok, quite often, hypocritically), the group think gets to me. I realize that it is exclusive and somewhat obnoxious and repetitive and limiting. I participate, of course, in this friendly collective thought process, but that is because I have found it to be mostly harmless. Until today.
Today, as I sat in a coffee shop doing homework, a girl had a seizure 5 feet away from me. She fell on the ground hard. Her mug shattered on the floor. Shards everywhere and she was convulsing in them. But thanks to many hours as a kid spent pouring over EMT books and living now with a group of passionate premed/nursing majors, I knew what to do. I'm sure I was not alone in these faculties. My knowledge base is hardly more than common sense.
BUT. In a matter of seconds I was the one on the ground, clearing her airway of vomit and turning her on her side.
Let me be clear about this: I did not want to be the one in charge of this situation. I am not medically qualified to handle anything of the sort. There were 10 other people and 2 baristas in the coffee shop. And yet there I was, crouched on the ground, holding this girl's violent body and taking the lead because everyone else was looking at one another for direction.
THIS. Is un. acceptable. There were 5 grown men in the coffee shop. The girl was kicking a table, and I had to tell them to move it so that she didn't break her leg. Everyone had a cell phone, but it wasn't until I specifically instructed someone to call 911 that anyone acted. There were sharp bits of porcelain everywhere, but until I barked for a pillow, I was holding this girl's head in my arm so that she didn't get cut.
She eventually came too and the EMT's took it from there, but NO ONE else who had been present could give them any information. Here is what I assessed in the midst of the ordeal: She seized for approximately 2 minutes, had possible cuts due to the glass, could have sustained a head injury from her fall, had a pulse of 160 and was not wearing any medical tags.
Unfortunately, these situations are not uncommon. But for the first time today, I realized the importance of thinking as an individual. Solidarity is great, but if we spend our life looking for cues that tell us what to do in any given situation, we will not only miss opportunities for boldness, but possibly endanger one another. When there is an emergency at hand, NEVER expect someone else to "handle it". Life is not a knock-knock joke. It is not the start of a quote that we can depend on others to finish. You have to finish your own quotes. You have to be the first responder.
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