What would you do?

Back in November, Nicola and I were driving home on a Sunday night, when she said that she saw someone collapsed at the side of the road. I turned around and got to investigate. I called 999, and panicking slightly, asked for the police. The man was obviously very drunk, he was passed out on the pavement over the road from the pub. Some other people walked past and called 999 again and asked for an ambulance. The ambulance operator ran through simple first aid tips until two lots of paramedics arrived (one from my call, one from the other). By this time, the man was coming around, and the paramedics carted him away.

Last night, Nicola and I were driving home on a Sunday night, when we saw a man collapsed in the middle of the road. Someone driving the other way also stopped (well, it was either that or run over him). As we went to check on the man's condition, two or three other people also stopped. I went to call 999, during this call the other people decided that as the man was "just very p*ssed" and told me to leave it. By now, the man had got up, staggered about and collapsed again).

After getting off the phone, I went to attend to the man. From his slurred speech, I was just about to make out that he was from Latvia. He had a cut to the bridge of his nose, and was going on about cash machines and money a lot. I wondered if he had been mugged. He had wet himself, and could barely stand, let alone walk. He wasn't making much sense, so I just tried to keep talking to him, while not getting too close in case he lashed out (given his state, this was a possibility).

The paramedics arrived very quickly, and started trying to make sense of it all. I left him in their capable hands.

When we got home, it suddenly dawned on me that not only had the other people left him, but they wanted me to as well. I have no sympathy with him for being p*ssed out of his brains, but if we had all left him, he could have been run over or caught hypothermia (the temperature was close to freezing).

I don't think of myself as a good Samaritan - I like to think that most people I know would have done the same thing. But all these other people were happy to abandon him. I am not sure what the point is, but the whole episode leaves me feeling slightly uncomfortable and raises doubts about the nature of human beings.

I would really like to hear your thoughts on this - just click below to leave a comment.