Drew Diaz says that in an emergency you need to make a conscious choice: either walk towards it or walk away.
Last week I wrote a piece—What Are You Prepared to Do?— in which I talked about my first real boss, who had as much influence on me as any Scout Master, teacher or coach. He taught me to drive, run machines, and sell the sizzle, not the steak. He was retired from the US Coast Guard and he taught me, actually drilled into me, that in an emergency you either walk towards it or away from trouble.
He taught me this because I ran after a tag line that had slipped from another worker’s grasp during a tree trimming operation, tripped luckily and didn’t get crushed by a few hundred pounds of arbor falling 50 feet.
His explanation was that if you can’t reach out and grab the problem you will have to move to deal with it.
If you are walking towards the problem you will have time to analyze what is going on without having to worry about your footing. If you are walking away you have the footing advantage and the benefit of not running into someone or something while glancing back over your shoulder.
But you have to move: Lead, Follow or Get the F*** out of the way. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.
This advice has served me well in a lifetime spent around construction sites and other sketchy situations.
I have rudimentary First Aid, conflict, fire fighting and structural problem skills, I’ve had to deal with dangerous wild animals that walk and crawl, killed some, scared some off and walked away from others. I’ve worked on these skills when the chance arose. I’m not a survivalist, but post 9/11 I kept a flat bar, mask, gloves, parachute cord, and duct tape in my bag for a few years.
When I post a picture of a road kill I’ve picked up and people ask me why, I’ll sometimes explain that it is to practice for when I have to pick up something dead. Similarly, I’ve put down various domestic and wild animals injured by cars, in addition to the game I’ve taken. I recently opted to crazy glue a wound on my hand closed rather than go get sutures—mostly to see if I could—and I posted those pics on FB, too.
I don’t know what it is I would have done at the Boston Marathon.
I do know what I did in a dorm fire, at various auto accidents, when I was involved in a scaffold collapse, and on the site of building collapse. I know what I did to a purse snatcher, and to an armed robber with his back to me.
Three summers ago, on the Monday after July 4th, a man dropped dead on the platform of the #1 train. I saw him go down like a puppet with his strings cut, just as I’ve seen deer and dogs fall when shot through the head. I started making my way towards him as a man stepped up and announced, “I am a fireman and I am certified in CPR,” and as a woman walked over and stated, “I am a registered nurse and I will assist.” Another woman said aloud, “I am going up stairs to the token booth and then to the street to call the cops.” I watched this drama unfolding for a few moments—one of the two shook her head at the other and noticed that the victim’s legs were hanging over the edge of the platform.
I walked over and announced “I am nothing, but his legs are hanging over the platform and it is going to suck if a train pulls in.” The fireman at his head looks at me, nods his head, the nurse leans back from his chest and I grab the poor guy by the shoulders of his blazer, pull him to the center of the platform as the heroes knee walk after us, stand up, and step back. A few minutes later the cops come barreling down the stairs with a stretcher board and I walked away to the next exit. There was nothing more that I could add to the situation than morbid curiosity.
The time to decide what you’re able to do—what you can do, what you’re willing to do—is before the question needs answering. That being said, none of us really know what we can do until we have to do it. As an old Irish man once said, “It’s a hard world, and on occasion, we are called upon to prove that.”
Read Breaking Stories of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.
Image credit: Helga’s Lobster Stew/Flickr
Growing up I was taught that when we see the white light to run toward it. I’ve not seen it yet.
J.A.D.D.—you are a good man…sometimes you can have too many first aid responders in one place…. That was the frustrating scenario in the hours immediately after 9/11…. As many colleagues who are close to me will attest… It was frustrating waiting and waiting for victims and survivors who unfortunately did not materialize at the hospital…..NYC was paralyzed that week… Sometimes all you can do is to be good to the people in your vicinity …. and accept your limits… Not everybody can be Superman flying around making right in the world (we were stuck in New Orleans and I was… Read more »
Thanks Doc- there was too much running into the towers and not enough thinking- firemen humping hose lengths up the stairs while the stand pipes had been severed.
Thank You @Dan Flowers- I can Do most anything except make tons of Money and Women Happy–
and I’ve come to understand I have been making money the wrong way and trying to make the wrong women happy.
@Richard Aubrey– isn’t it about time for you to contribute another piece? I’d like to hear the Sucking Chest Wound story.
Drew.
Maybe I’ll do it for the 5-11 request. Thing is, it was no big deal. I checked around. All Army and Marine vets and active duty know it. Asked an elderly neighbor who fought in the Philippines. He automatically slapped his hand to his chest. All cops and EMT and firefighters know it. All docs know it. Bout half the nurses know it.
Fortunately, it was one hole. A through and through requires sealing both holes and that can compromise the spinal cord. Moving the guy, I mean.
You could write a piece on the evolution of the treatment. I’m guessing that there is no longer a presumption that either you or the victim will have the cellophane from a cigarette pack in your possession. From what’s a little blood? Yo a little blood can hold too much hepatitis and or HIV.
There is a whole brotherhood of guys carrying parachute cord and duct tape- throwing signs at each other that only they understand– in anticipation of closing wounds and applying tourniquets…
Awesome article. You are a “doer”. In an increasingly jaded and dispassionate society “doers” are becoming rare. Doers understand exactly what your first boss taught… Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. I have been on the scene of many bad events or potentially bad events where legions of people stood around like sheep; either not knowing what to do, or because they were unwilling to get involved. In every case, you can see them turning to look around them for the authority figure or person who WILL step up and do something. I have a disdain… Read more »
There’s what you are mentally and emotionally prepared to do. There’s what you are capable of doing in terms of skill sets. There’s what you can do because you have the actual tools at hand. Work backwards on that sequence. Tools. Skill sets. Then you’ll find you are more mentally and emotionally prepared.
Then you’ll be worth your ration of oxygen.
Of course in perfect Drew synchronicity maybe walking will make you suspect.
“Boston Marathon killer pictured walking calmly away from scene of horror”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311471/Boston-Marathon-bomb-killer-pictured-walking-calmly-away-scene-horror.html#ixzz2R0dgDCMl