Emergency at Work (Unrelated) Need a Wakie

[ZoeyLovecraft90]

So I'll start by saying that I've always been a healer or support class of some sort in every game I've played.
Three days ago at my work (I'm a florist) a woman collapsed and went into a seizure. I had just sold her a vase and it shattered when she dropped. My co worker "Ducky" and I got on our knees and held here until she came to. Which took about 5 mins. But it felt like a long time. The seizure was violent. I've never seen anyone die in front of me before and I was scared that it would happen. I was "white as a ghost" Ducky tells me. When she finally came out of it she incoherently asked if her phone was in her purse. It wasn't she had dropped it during the collapse. I didn't notice it at the time but we were being surrounded by people(customers). Some of them were even low enough to record the incident. Something I went berserk about after I stood up in an attempt to make the vultures move along. I wonder if someone picked up her phone and never brought it back. Disgusting to think about. Anyway the EMTs arrived and took the poor woman out to the ambulance.

In the game I'm a hero. This incident made me realize how useless I am in an emergency and how powerless I am to stop anything bad from happening to someone in real life.

Anyone got any blues? I need one :o

[Blackout]

That does sound kind of awful, but I suppose that ultimatley thats the way that things go sometimes. Some people don't really know how to react in a crisis like that and will just do the first thing that comes to mind without really thinking about it, hence the people either just standing around or stupidly recording the incident. I don't think all of them will have been doing it maliciously, in fact very few will have, sometimes people just do stupid things, especially if they are thrown into a situation that they didn't expect to and don't know how to deal with.

As for the feeling of powerlessness?...Well its all about chance really, had you been a doctor or nurse you might have known what to do in that kind of a situation immediately and not felt helpless at all, but at the same time if there was some kind of incident involving flora or fauna (plants dying or somesuch) a doctor would have no idea what to do either. At the end of the day its down to chance whether you'll have the solution to an unexpected problem like that, the thing that matters is that you did what you could and the situation turned out all right. :)

(Also as heroic as powerful as our characters might be, we can't ignore the fact that most of them would have no idea what to do in an emergency like that too; unless they were a defender of course :P)

[Joshex]

When a person is having a seizure there isn't much you can do, the best experts say to do is to get anything dangerous away from the person and turn off any music or flickering lights. other than that you did the right thing in going over to help them, letting them know you're there for them is one of the best things they can have while going through their seizure.

Seizures rarely kill unless the person has had a lot of them or they are very young or elderly.

unless they have a condition that causes their seizures and insist they are ok, you did the right thing by making sure they were seen to by paramedic staff.

the question I have to ask is, I don't know your financial situation or whether you have managerial status at the work place, but did you try and get the woman a replacement vase?

[Todogut]

When I was a kid, my family was on vacation at Nags Head Beach, North Carolina, and, in the parking lot outside of our hotel, a young man fell to the pavement in a seizure. The guy was foaming from the corners of his mouth.

A small crowd gathered, and my dad stepped forward, knelt, and tilted the guy's head back to clear his throat passage. Pretty soon, hotel workers stepped up and took control of the emergency response. My dad instructed the rest of our family to move along and go about our business.

Weird and scary. The young man recovered and was okay.

Todo

[Shenku]

My brother had epilepsy as a kid, and yeah, it's one of those conditions that you're never quite sure how to deal with. Thankfully, he hasn't had a seizure since he was very little. He was retested recently, and the doctors seem to think that he's not at risk really anymore.

Funny story, because of my brother, my mom thought I had a seizure once when I was still a baby, but it turned out to just be dangerously low blood sugar for some reason... The doctors wouldn't have even looked at me had my brother's doctor not been there and remembered how hyper I was when I had torn up a whole emergency room months before when my brother had been taken there for a seizure... I think I rolled Red-side as a baby...... :o

Generally speaking, what's been said above is pretty true, in that the seizures themselves are usually not life threatening, it's the environment the individual is in that can make them potentially fatal. Such as while driving, going up/down stairs, falling the wrong way when they collapse and hitting their head on something, exc. Sometimes I hear some concerns about someone possibly biting off their own tongue while having a seizure, but I haven't heard of too many instances of such a thing actually happening, so I think that's more just a bogus thing they say in Medical TV shows/movies to make it seem worse than it is for ratings.

The best thing you can do is just call 911, try to make sure they don't hurt themselves on anything, and keep all the vulturous onlookers out of the way so the paramedics don't have to fight through an obnoxious crowd when they arrive.

[ZoeyLovecraft90]

the question I have to ask is, I don't know your financial situation or whether you have managerial status at the work place, but did you try and get the woman a replacement vase?

I'm not sure of the woman ever returned or sent anyone back to get a new vase. If so, my co workers have not told me. But if she were to come back she would receive a free vase with an arrangement.

That's how I roll >:)

[Joshex]

I'm not sure of the woman ever returned or sent anyone back to get a new vase. If so, my co workers have not told me. But if she were to come back she would receive a free vase with an arrangement.

That's how I roll >:)

Sounds like a hero to me.

sometimes we can't see the small things we intend to do, or the small things we do.

[Super Firebug]

Regarding the helpless feeling: it may not be of use in a seizure situation, but have you thought of taking a first-aid course, or EMT training, or some such? That way, you'll be in a better position to live your in-game role, should the need arise. And, even if you can't help in every situation, you'll know that you're not helpless.

Even if you can't afford such a course, there likely are websites where you can pick up emergency-aid information that you can study at home.

[Paragon Avenger]

I only heard about it, but a coworker had a heart attack at work a floor above me.
She was the project manager for a couple projects I was working on.
They got her to the hospital, but she died.
I'm glad I wasn't there at the time.  Although I do know some first aid, I don't think fast on my feet in an emergency.  I probably would have gotten in the way.

Heart attack: take an aspirin. And get to hospital.
Seisure: make comfortable, like holding head and preven victim from shallowing tonfue, but don't stick your fingers in victim's mouth.
Stroke: think F.A.S.T.  face dropping, arm weakness, slurred speech, time sense distortion.  Again aspirin and hospital.
Car underwater: watch bubbles raise, swim that way.

[blackjak]

Thank goodness she came out of it (hopefully) unharmed. I know intensely how powerless trying to help a person with epilepsy is. My daughter started having seizures toward the end of last year out of the blue with no physical causes. Hers generally last a minute or a minute and a half and they always scare me to death. I have woken from nightmares of them. You did perfectly. Any more than 5 minutes and it could have been very serious for her. I hope she gets those under control. You kept her as safe as you could and got her help. Honestly, the only thing an EMT could have done is monitor her more closely and been there if things escalated. Good work and thank you from a parent of an epilepsy sufferer.