Are u a Good Samaritan or Selfish monster?!
Yesterday morning I was on my way to work, earlier than usual. As I get on the train and the doors closed I realized why there were only 5 people in the train car, there was a really stinky bum on the train, and the AC seemed to be off. The smell was so bad no matter which end of the train car you were, you still smelled it and it was potent, made your eyes tear. Anyways, I decided to get off at the next stop and risk losing my seat, to stand up in the next car over. I switched to the next car and took one sigh of relief, and clean air.
As I stood there in the crowded train car, I looked around trying to entertain myself by people watching. In front of me stood this old short lady and leaning against the door was a young women in scrubs, next to the young woman was a middle age men. As I looked around I saw the young women in scrubs taking her sweater off but wasn’t very successful as she leaned on the old short lady in front of her and slowly collapsed next to the middle age man and passed out, banging her head against the train door. It was shocking at first. We all just stood there watching her. Someone behind me said she must be having a seizure. She wasn’t, I think there would’ve been some shaking or rapid leg or eye movement.
After a short while I realized we were just staring and not doing anything, while she was still liying on the floor. I told the lady in front of me to press the red button and we called the conductor. We said we had a sick passenger on our train car. We waited for a reply, “hello this is the conductor, please confirm you have a sick passenger” the conductor replied. The young lady was waking up, but still couldn’t get up. The middle age men was on the floor talking to her, she then felt her stomach and she said she was pregnant. The conductor called again “Hello, this is the conductor pls confirm u have a sick passenger”. We all yelled at the intercom and said yes we do and she’s pregnant. The conductor then replied that he would call for help and they’ll wait at the next stop.
As we arrived at the next stop, the conductor made an announcement, you know the one that we all hear when someone is sick on the train: “Hello this is the conductor, we’ll be held at the next station momentarily due to a sick passenger we apologize for the inconvenience.”
The people in the car we were in weren’t mad that we were delayed, at least they didn’t sound upset, we were concerned about the young girl, and we felt we did the right thing at the time.
The people in the other cars were probably upset, because we were being delayed by a sick passenger, and now they’ll be late to work.
My question to you is: if you were in a similar situation in the car with a sick passenger would you have called for help? Or have you called for help for a sick passenger on the train, even though you know it’ll delay the train?
Or are you one of those passengers that cringe after hearing the announcement “train delayed due to sick passenger” and say things like, “if you are sick why get on the train?”
Which one are you?
A good Samaritan or a selfish monster?! Or a good mix of both?