What Would YOU Do?

The events at the Boston Marathon are still on my mind tonight.  So I want to ask you all what you would do in an emergency situation.  There were many, many people yesterday who ran toward the carnage instead of away, some of them were trained medical personnel, police officers, some were bystanders, some were volunteers at the race and others were National Guard members, and still others were running in the race.

In that kind of emergency situation.....What would YOU do?......I have never been in a situation like that with multiple casualties and I can tell you that who was with me would make my reactions totally different.

If I had any of my children/grandchildren with me, I would shield them and run in the other direction....my job as their Mom/Grandma is to protect them, at all costs.  I would not want them exposed to the scene of a tragedy like that and would do anything I had to to get them out of the area as quickly as possible. 

But if I was by myself or with my husband or another adult, my reaction would be to run straight towards the people hurt and injured, and do anything I could to help.....I have never been in a mass casualty situation as I said, but I have been the first person on the scene of a car accident, twice.  And both times, I have had children with me....they were not in harms way, and I knew that, and apparently my tone of voice in an emergency situation is much different than usual....I have told my children on more than one occasion to "stay in the car"  and they have pretty much ignored me....but in both instances when I was the first on the scene of car accidents...I did not shut the car off, I simply jumped out and said to the child in question..."stay in the car and don't move" and they watched me out of the window and did exactly what they were told to do.

In my former position at work, I was trained as a first responder, with first aid knowledge.  It was MY responsibilty to decide when 200 people needed to take cover from a storm, or tornado, it was MY responsibilty to conduct fire drills, and when the alarms went off for no reason that I was aware of, I was the LAST person out of the building after checking every floor, even though I had floor chiefs, and making sure everyone was out.  I had prepared statements for the media, if an emergency situation ever arose and people were injured or killed, and I can tell you that I would have and still would be there digging with my bare hands to try and get the injured out, if necessary.  Even 7 years after I quit,  the person who has that responsibility now knows that I have his back...if there are tornados in the area, I call him to let him know....and he knows that even now, he can count on me to get to his side and help in whatever capacity he needs me.

So tell me folks...have you ever thought about this kind of situation?  What would YOU do?  I urge EVERYONE to take a first aid and CPR class, and to know how to use a portable defibulator....although in most cases, there are very good instructions on portable defibulators.  If you don't feel you have the training to help, maybe you can just talk to someone, hold their hand, and tell them you are there and will stay with them, that everything is going to be ok, even if it's a lie, because sometimes that is just what people need to hear.  And if you need to run the other way, that's OK too....because sometimes, that is the best thing to do...and NO ONE will judge you for it!  Sometimes, just leaving the area and allowing the trained medical personnel and first responders to do their jobs is the best thing to do.

So just think about it....and HAVE A GOOD DAY!