At one point during my time in the land of sun and fun, I caught fire. The young Marine standing next to me lost control of his sphincters, verbal and anal, and was doing the 'Run in Circles' bit.
I looked at him and said, in my best command voice - I've been on fire before. I need you to ensure that the five gallon jerry can filled with fuel is not still burning.
He got his head space and timing cleared and put that fire out. I extinguised the fuel that was burning on my sweat shirt, and things went back to normal.
Note - there were probably a metric shit ton of 'Fucks' for flavor in my comment to the young Marine, but the above is what I remember saying.
I had a direct experience of this. Short and sweet version:
Kids had fallen into deep water at the edge of a lake where a current had dug out under a big boulder, hubby went to save them. They had fallen off a large boulder (one at a time as each one tried to save the one before them that had slipped off!), so he got there and was trying to put them back up onto the boulder (5 kids, slippery boulder, Feb or March). I got there from a different route, so, slower. I started helping to push kids up on boulder, too, because he was. (That was the following the panicked, but not totally looking panicked, and person in authority comes in).
Then my brain kicked in (I'm pretty good in an emergency).
Because I came a different way, I knew that 4 feet to the right I could stand on the bottom, and I had taken jr lifeguard training as a teen, so knew things like don't let scared people get on your back. I started pulling kids over to the not so deep part where I could push them into the smaller rocks and they could climb out, helping each other. Hubby had finally gotten 2 kids up onto the boulder (That strength in emergency thing) and they started joining the other 3 kids who were now out. But then hubby, wouldn't take my hand because he didn't want me to drown with him (he was exhausted). I finally got it through his head that I was standing on the bottom and it would be okay. I had rolled an ankle, but the water was cold enough it didn't start bruising till later. So, we all walked back to the van, pulled blankets around, I handed out sugar mints for shock and we drove home to finish getting dry and warm.
I took a Red Cross Lifeguard course when I was 16. The instructor told us that if the drowning person was in full panic he'd very likely try to drown you as he or she climbed up on you. In that case, he said it was better to let them "drown", then rescue and resuscitate them. No point in both of you dying. I knew it was good advice because I saw my older brother (12) climb up on my dad when dad was trying to save him from drowning. He had dad underwater and dad was drowning. Dad tossed him away with the surety that in the crowded river someone else would rescue Bob if dad didn't recover in time. But dad recovered quickly and got a firm grip on Bob and saved him.
December 30, 2000. I was on my way to work when, a little under a mile from the house, I lost control on an icy hill with a bridge at the bottom. My car went off the side, upside down into the creek. Fortunately it wasn't that deep, so I didn't have to worry about drowning. I hung by my seatbelt for approximately a half hour waiting for someone to spot me. I couldn't unbuckle because I was suspended and it wouldn't disengage. I couldn't get to my pocket knife because it was past the seatbelt. I didn't have time to panic while sliding and going off the bridge and after I was down I didn't see the point of it.
It's nice to be able to make that comment, but for most people who haven't been exposed to enough emergencies to have developed a thicker skin on their response reflex, it's automatic and uncontrollable without outside influence.
I was just commisserating with Mr. Hopkins, and I agree that a panic response is involuntary. Mindset before a given crisis is a big help, but I get that some people have visceral responses to, say, snakes/blood/whatever.
It takes me longer than I like to figure out the "bites", but I do eventually get there. A group of my college friends and I visited a campsite close to a lake. The guy whose campsite it was (rented or owned, I don't know) took us to a small dock which we could swim from. One of the friends. instead of jumping in, lowered himself in with his arms while holding onto the dock, resulting in running his foot down the underwater metal support. Big gash on the outside of the foot, about an inch or so behind the little toe.
We all kind of panicked, but I looked it over (adrenaline takes away some of the squeamishness, too), then took a smaller towel someone had brought, wiped off some of the algae, then tied it around the cut as tight as I could pull it, and we proceeded to carry him up the hillside, using a sleeping bad as a not-a-stretcher. Then, one of the others, who I now realize was still in panic mode, drove him to the hospital, way faster than was necessary.
I remember one emergency during my childhood where I was the injured person and the only person in the room who was both calm and remembered the number for local emergencies.
It was before 911 was implemented in my area, and it helped that a week or two earlier my elementary school had a class that included the emergency number.
That’s a healthy heaping of "WTH?” right there. I don’t care how frazzled she is, that’s 1. A failure to understand how human plumbing works, and 2. Overreaction to a non-critical boo boo.
At one point during my time in the land of sun and fun, I caught fire. The young Marine standing next to me lost control of his sphincters, verbal and anal, and was doing the 'Run in Circles' bit.
I looked at him and said, in my best command voice - I've been on fire before. I need you to ensure that the five gallon jerry can filled with fuel is not still burning.
He got his head space and timing cleared and put that fire out. I extinguised the fuel that was burning on my sweat shirt, and things went back to normal.
Note - there were probably a metric shit ton of 'Fucks' for flavor in my comment to the young Marine, but the above is what I remember saying.
I had a direct experience of this. Short and sweet version:
Kids had fallen into deep water at the edge of a lake where a current had dug out under a big boulder, hubby went to save them. They had fallen off a large boulder (one at a time as each one tried to save the one before them that had slipped off!), so he got there and was trying to put them back up onto the boulder (5 kids, slippery boulder, Feb or March). I got there from a different route, so, slower. I started helping to push kids up on boulder, too, because he was. (That was the following the panicked, but not totally looking panicked, and person in authority comes in).
Then my brain kicked in (I'm pretty good in an emergency).
Because I came a different way, I knew that 4 feet to the right I could stand on the bottom, and I had taken jr lifeguard training as a teen, so knew things like don't let scared people get on your back. I started pulling kids over to the not so deep part where I could push them into the smaller rocks and they could climb out, helping each other. Hubby had finally gotten 2 kids up onto the boulder (That strength in emergency thing) and they started joining the other 3 kids who were now out. But then hubby, wouldn't take my hand because he didn't want me to drown with him (he was exhausted). I finally got it through his head that I was standing on the bottom and it would be okay. I had rolled an ankle, but the water was cold enough it didn't start bruising till later. So, we all walked back to the van, pulled blankets around, I handed out sugar mints for shock and we drove home to finish getting dry and warm.
I took a Red Cross Lifeguard course when I was 16. The instructor told us that if the drowning person was in full panic he'd very likely try to drown you as he or she climbed up on you. In that case, he said it was better to let them "drown", then rescue and resuscitate them. No point in both of you dying. I knew it was good advice because I saw my older brother (12) climb up on my dad when dad was trying to save him from drowning. He had dad underwater and dad was drowning. Dad tossed him away with the surety that in the crowded river someone else would rescue Bob if dad didn't recover in time. But dad recovered quickly and got a firm grip on Bob and saved him.
exactly!
December 30, 2000. I was on my way to work when, a little under a mile from the house, I lost control on an icy hill with a bridge at the bottom. My car went off the side, upside down into the creek. Fortunately it wasn't that deep, so I didn't have to worry about drowning. I hung by my seatbelt for approximately a half hour waiting for someone to spot me. I couldn't unbuckle because I was suspended and it wouldn't disengage. I couldn't get to my pocket knife because it was past the seatbelt. I didn't have time to panic while sliding and going off the bridge and after I was down I didn't see the point of it.
Panicking doesn’t help, so what’s the point? 🫤
It's nice to be able to make that comment, but for most people who haven't been exposed to enough emergencies to have developed a thicker skin on their response reflex, it's automatic and uncontrollable without outside influence.
I was just commisserating with Mr. Hopkins, and I agree that a panic response is involuntary. Mindset before a given crisis is a big help, but I get that some people have visceral responses to, say, snakes/blood/whatever.
I had to do a search for Póg mo thóin. Nice turn of phrase.
It takes me longer than I like to figure out the "bites", but I do eventually get there. A group of my college friends and I visited a campsite close to a lake. The guy whose campsite it was (rented or owned, I don't know) took us to a small dock which we could swim from. One of the friends. instead of jumping in, lowered himself in with his arms while holding onto the dock, resulting in running his foot down the underwater metal support. Big gash on the outside of the foot, about an inch or so behind the little toe.
We all kind of panicked, but I looked it over (adrenaline takes away some of the squeamishness, too), then took a smaller towel someone had brought, wiped off some of the algae, then tied it around the cut as tight as I could pull it, and we proceeded to carry him up the hillside, using a sleeping bad as a not-a-stretcher. Then, one of the others, who I now realize was still in panic mode, drove him to the hospital, way faster than was necessary.
I remember one emergency during my childhood where I was the injured person and the only person in the room who was both calm and remembered the number for local emergencies.
It was before 911 was implemented in my area, and it helped that a week or two earlier my elementary school had a class that included the emergency number.
That’s a healthy heaping of "WTH?” right there. I don’t care how frazzled she is, that’s 1. A failure to understand how human plumbing works, and 2. Overreaction to a non-critical boo boo.
Maybe it helps to have been biffed a few times but that's bandaid lever there.