A man *likely* died on my bus this evening.
Boyfriend and i were headed back to Capitol Hill from Foggy Bottom where we had gone Trader Joe’s and given that the metro and the bus both go along the same route to get there with a lil bit of a hike from the metro to TJ’s, we took the bus. blah blah blah we shopped, got a bunch of food. Lost some whole wheat penne. Damnit.
But we got on the bus, and by the time we were nearing the archives metro stop the driver was trying to wake a homeless man in the corner seat across from us in the front of the bus. The driver, called out to him, knowing where his stop is and knowing that it was approaching. The man didn’t respond.
Next stop, the bus driver grumbles and gets up and shakes the man but still, no response.
Someone asked if he was breathing, the bus driver said he didn’t know. Then, someone checked – they thought he was breathing. The bus driver still, didn’t even ATTEMPT to check the man’s pulse or whether he was really breathing or not. People started getting off the bus shortly after the driver said to a passenger “what do you think I should do?”
Now I’m not a doctor, nor was I the first to jump up…but something just seemed off about the situation, I mean a bus driver faced with an emergency should not be saying “what do you think I should do” to a passenger on his bus while driving in Washington, DC. I mean, I doubt it would have been too much to check to see if the man has a pulse.
Boyfriend and i sulked off the bus – later we were a little upset with ourselves for not doing more – not that there was much more to do. I admit it, maybe I didn’t want to get close to the smelly homeless man, and the other passenger did say he was breathing, as boyfriend later pointed out, you can’t give CPR to someone who’s still breathing.
We were still waiting for a new bus when the Fire Department and EMT’s arrived. They too shook the man, then put the man who may as well have been dead weight on a gurney and began CPR. Chances are the man was dead, boyfriend said he saw the man kind of coughing shortly after he got on the bus. I bet it was a heart attack.
But the part that bothers me the most, and there are few is mostly the bus driver’s lack of action. The lack of training. The lack of willingness to act on it. You’re driving a bus in the Nation’s Capitol, you should be willing to act in any sort of emergency be it terrorism or a *simpler* emergency such as a passenger needing medical attention.
Not to mention on top of that, the driver seemed BURDENED by this unfortunate event, the passengers – myself unfortunately included – seemed unwilling to check the guy (i didn’t think it was my place…i deferred to the unwilling authority aka the bus driver. Hindsight is 20/20 though…). It’s sad the stigma that works against homeless people.
On the walk home, boyfriend and i thought about what had just gone on, we were both rather regretful that we hadn’t done more. The part that got to me the most, was this man would be taken to the hospital, and if he really was dead would there be anyone to claim his body? Would there be anyone at his funeral? Would he even have a funeral? Thinking about all that…made me really sad and at the same time, thankful for everyone I have that I know cares about me.
