Yesterday just shortly after I left this studio to head home, this crazy rain suddenly started pouring down.  The visibility was so terrible, I thought it would probably be a bad idea to stay on the road.  Ahhh, lucky, there’s a Red Rooster fastfood joint just ahead, so I turned into the parking lot and down comes the hail!  Thank God I stopped.

It’s raining too hard for me to get out the car to grab a coffee inside, maybe I’ll just stay here in my car and read my book.  Then the hail stops and the rain becomes a bit more sane, but still all kinds of crazy.

Hmmm should I go home or go in and grab a coffee anyways?  Then as I turned over my left shoulder to check the distance from my car to the entrance of the Red Rooster vs current traffic flow on the road, it happened.

A white car pulls into the driveway and hits a man who’s crossing the driveway, who immediately falls to the ground.

OMG.  Get up dude.

He doesn’t move.

OMFG.  He’s still not moving.  

The passenger of the white car gets out and squats next to the man holding an umbrella over him as the rain continues to fall.

What should I do?  Do I get out to help?  Do I leave?  Wait, I’ve done first aid, I can help!  Hmmm ABCDs of first aid, what is it again?  Airway, Breathing, Circulation…  Is it circulation, or what else starts with a C?  What about D?  Wasn’t there some other check we were suppose to do?

The man lies still on the ground as the rain continues to splatter on the roof of my car.

Oh for fucks sake, just get out and help the man.

I ran from my car to the man.  Oh good, he’s blinking.

“Hi sir, I’m an emergency first responder, I’m here to help you.  Are you okay?  Can you tell me your name?”

I’m pretty sure that’s not what they taught us to say damn it!

There’s blood on the driveway behind the man’s head and he says he can’t feel his legs.  Some of the staff of Red Rooster comes out to help.  It’s still raining quite hard and he’s getting drenched.  I asked if anyone has any blankets we can cover him with to keep him dry.  Seriously Karen, why would a Red Rooster or normal people carry blankets with them?  Damn it why aren’t we at a yoga studio then we’ll have tons of blankets!

Oh wait.  Yoga.  Yoga MAT.

I run back to my car to fetch my mat.  Trying hard not to trip as I run across the wet driveway in my flip flops back to the man lying on the floor.  I cover him in my pink yoga mat.  Gosh I’m sorry it’s a pink mat, I hope he doesn’t mind.

Hey, here’s another use for a yoga mat.  Keep man dry while lying on the floor with head injury in the rain.  Make mental note.

We had called the paramedics already, this other lady was speaking to them on the phone and they told us to put some bandages on the back of his head to stop the bleeding.  Automatically the people around hand me the bandages.  WTF.  Why me?!  Does no one else around here know first aid?  I lift the man’s head as gently as I could and place the bandage on and place his head back down.  Ahhh I hope he didn’t have neck injury or something and I just damaged it even more or something.  Crap.  I asked if we can call anyone for him.  He tells me to call his boss.  And his car isn’t locked.  I run to his car and sure enough it’s unlocked and the keys are still in the ignition.  OMG who does that?  If this was in South Africa this car would be gone already!  Australians, what trusting people they are.  I found his phone, called his boss who says he’ll come right away.

Ambulance arrives finally.  His boss arrives.  The police arrives.

After about an hour, the man is on his way to the hospital.  The police took statements from all witnesses.  I gave my number to the man’s boss and asked him to please call me and let me know if he is okay.

Only then do I realise I’m kind of wet and freezing and my heart is still pumping faster than usual…

To be continued….