Distressing Things

Ok. As promised.

1. Guy at bus stop.
Saturday evening I was walking from the computer labs to the bus stop and passed a group of people huddled around a man. A girl (who has a million piercings... I've seen her a few times just passing along the street and in Tesco's and she's awesome looking) was pressing a napkin against his head. You could tell he was bleeding really badly but he was still standing up. Along the pavement was giant drops of blood. I hung around for about half a minute to assess the situation... I don't know any first aid so I can't do anything, and one of the guys was obviously talking to 999 (or 112) so I walked to the bus stop which was only a little way past the huddle. A short while later an ambulance pulled up but they didn't leave right away, a very short time later a police car pulled up. I guess the guy had been attacked and they needed a statement.

Distressing rating: 6/10 (not as distressing as it could've been as everything was under control and being attended to)

2. Friend on floor
We had a couple of (karate) competitions this weekend and I was watching a friend fight. All of a sudden he got kicked in the neck and it looked like a pretty powerful kick. He doubled over and fell to the floor holding his neck and rolled over. The medic was called over and eventually he sat up, so it was ok. But the bit where he was on the floor was quite distressing.

Distressing rating: 7/10

3. 12 year old girl
Well maybe she was 12-15? I'm really bad at telling ages at that point. But I was walking down the street at about 6:30 in the evening and I passed a girl walking the other way looking quite tearful. I thought to myself "What's wrong with her? Should I just keep on walking or should I check if she's ok?" So I doubled back and asked her if she was ok and she only nodded. She seemed to be standing still and looking around so I asked her if she was waiting for someone and she nodded. I didn't know what else to do at that point so I just stood there with her. I was thinking I should find a responsible adult and hand her over to them, until I realised, at that moment in time, I was the responsible adult and I would have to do something. I eventually got some more out of her and it appeared that she was waiting for her uncle, because her mother had gone away and he'd supposed to be there at 5:30 and wasn't around yet. So I got her to use my phone to call him, went straight to answerphone. I invited her over to my friend's place (where I was heading at the time) for a cup of tea to calm down, but she refused, and I don't blame her as you're not supposed to go anywhere with a stranger! I think she thought I was going to leave her then as she started crying again, which made me feel really bad. I asked her if there was anybody that she could call and she called her brother who didn't pick up, and her other brother, who turned out to be at her place. So I walked her back to her place (which was just up the road) and watched as she went in and was met by her brother (who didn't look very sympathetic to her teras, but that's how some brothers are). I'm still a bit disturbed as I feel there might've been more going on then she let on but I didn't want to pry if she didn't want to share, and also if there hadn't been anything else going on.

Distressing Rating: 7/10 Why was she so distressed and scared? How did I all of a sudden become responsible adult? What are you supposed to do in those situations?

4. "Medic! Medic!"
As mentioned in #3, we had competitions this weekend. I was fighting an obvious beginner, who smacked me really hard in the jaw. I reeled back and the ref (she's a ref in training actually, which is allowed at league matches - she's a famous fighter and has obviously taken the next step to referee) yelled "Yamae!" (to stop the fighting) and then "Medic! Medic!" with a sort of panic to her voice. Obviously you can't see yourself so I was thinking "omg, is it really that bad?" but I was all good. The secret is to shut your mouth and bite your gumshield unless you have to kiai (a sort of shout which you have to make when you're scoring a point) because the jaw is a hinge... if you've got your mouth shut it's going to take the whole head not just the bottom part of the jaw.

Distressing rating: 2/10 Hey it was only my good looks that was in question...