My roommate and I love to go out and explore Charleston.
We frequently take walks to discover new parts of Charleston that we are not familiar with and just enjoy the beautiful city we live in.
The usual places we include the battery, harbor walk, and the marketplace. We were walking the battery, the weather was nice, nothing was out of place.
We suddenly walk and see a young man, probably 25 years of age laying down on the sidewalk.
This seemed strange right away, but many thoughts came to my head to dismiss it, maybe he just needs to sit down and escape the heat, or maybe he just went on a run and was resting. We had no clue what was happening.
As we walk closer, we are greeted by this man's dog running up to us and immediately trying to get our attention. We follow the dog who brought us to the owner, at this point my roommate and I know something is very wrong. The man looks unconscious and would not respond to us.
A bad situation took a turn for the worse when this man started to seize on the sidewalk.
It started mild but got very aggressive and scary.
There was no one around us on the sidewalk, it was up to my roommate and me to help this man. After a moment of panic, instincts kicked in.
I called 911 and said that we needed an ambulance here as fast as possible, my roommate cupped her hands under the man's head to protect it from hitting the pavement.
It's safe to say that neither of us has ever been in a situation like that before, but we both have common sense. We knew not to try and restrain the man because that could cause further injury to him.
We tried to protect his head while I stayed on the phone with the paramedics who were asking me constant questions. "How old is the man?" "Describe the seizing" "How long has he been like this?" Many of these questions were a challenge to answer because this man was a stranger to us.
The paramedics arrived in about six or seven minutes, but it felt like hours. Not long after their arrival, the man came out of his seizure; he was fine except for some minor scrapes.
He said that he was diabetic and his blood sugar was dangerously low. He also said he does not get seizures often; he hadn't had one in 6 years.
The man was extremely grateful to my roommate for our concern and help and me. This day occurred a couple of months back, but I still remember it vividly and think about it a lot.
Every decision you make affects not only yourself but the people around you. If my roommate and I had not stopped to help this man, who knows what would have happened?
Every decision counts so be sure to make the right ones.
