What would you do?

furrygreyboy

Feeling sonewhat sorry for myself..... I caught my flip-flops (podiatrist's dream shoe- ha!) on the sidewalk yesterday and took a spectacular nose-dive into the street.

So I picked myself up, inspected the damage (torn pants, bloody knee and hands) and pulled myself together....

Once the shock/embarrassement passed, I was really pissed off that of the half a dozen people nearby (including a woman walking right in front of me), not one person asked if I was ok. Just got me thinking, if that was me, I would've offered a kind word or something....

What would you have done?

captain salty

stuck my hand down my pants, shit into my hand, and flung feces at everyone within a 20 foot radius.

batman

Well, I've seen plenty of New Yorkers go way above and beyond nice when it comes to helping strangers.

That said - you fell down and nobody came to kiss your boo boo. Buck up, wipe the dust off and get over it.

brooklynpotter

i constantly trip and fall and the only time anyone ever helped me was on the ice, a couple of winters ago, in bartel pritchard square. i slipped and an elderly woman helped me to my feet. it was humiliating.

i have helped people who fell near me, but that's just who i am.

but not at all shocked that nobody did anything. quite typical, actually. sad but true

drano

I would have checked on you. People usually do in situations I've seen, I'm surprised nobody said anything.

rose

Usually, when people trip, I pretend I didn't see so they won't be embarrassed. But if you hit the ground, I would check on you. I'm surprised no one stopped. But - you know - people can be really oblivious to what is going on around them, especially with everyone having an iPod and or a cellphone in their ear.

captain salty

Rose wrote: Usually, when people trip, I pretend I didn't see so they won't be embarrassed. But if you hit the ground, I would check on you. I'm surprised no one stopped. But - you know - people can be really oblivious to what is going on around them, especially with everyone having an iPod and or a cellphone in their ear.

i have my ipod and cellphone in my ears constantly, but i am still very aware of my surroundings... my eyes work perfectly fine.

armchair_warrior

if i fell i dont want people to feel sorry for me or try to help cause its freaking embrassing i pretend nbody see a thing.

anonymous

That is a tricky one because you KNOW the person who fell is mortified so I would be torn between running to make sure the person was O.K. but then seeing it was a young/youngish guy in flip flops and not wanting to make the situation worse. But if someone took a nosedive (as I have seen), I have always asked "are you O.K.?"

It reminds me of being pregnant and seeing who gives up a seat for you on the subway. (AHEM.....MEN. Epsecially WHITE MEN don't get up off thier butts. I would like you guys to see what it feels like to suddenly carry around 30-35 pounds of extra weight) But once I was with my friend and someone asked her if she wanted a seat because he thought she was pregnant and well, she had just been eating out a little too much the last couple months and she was totally pissed. So I can understand the reticence of making a mistake and making someone feel like crap.

raw

That's screwed up. The same thing happened to me last week (I wasn't wearing flip-flops, but am a natural clutz) on 7th Avenue and 3rd Street around 6 PM. My leg was bloody. A middle-aged Asian couple stopped by and made sure I was OK. I was so shocked and embarrassed, I found myself thanking them several times, but just wishing they'd vanish like everyone else who had seen the scene. They were nice people.

What's REALLY f-ed up is one winter I saw a woman on the ground in ice and it was obvious she could not get up. A huge, white athletic guy -- bigger than me -- walked right on by her. Maybe the guy had a sprained knee or some other hidden injury that would prevent him from yanking a woman up. I pulled her up no problem, but still get sick thinking about the type of jackass that would ignore a hurt woman on he ground. If he was afraid of touching her and getting sued from some unintentional injrury he caised, he could have atleast asked her if she was OK or needed him to call 911.

stella

I'm sorry that happened to you. I'd probably ask if you were alright. I think people are afraid of invading others' space, so unless the person seems quite injured, they would just let it go and pretty much ignore the person who fell.

I was in the same situation a few weeks ago. I was walking up the stairs in my subway station when the guy in front of me was using his huge umbrella like a cane. I was afraid he was going to unintentionally hit me with the umbrella, so I tried to go around him. I was at the 2nd to the top most stair when my flip flop got caught, and I fell on my palms and knees. I was so embarrassed, but one guy helped me stand up, and another handed over my flip flop that fell off my foot! :oops:

furrygreyboy

So now I'm wishing I'd tripped in Park Slope instead of Cobble Hill....!

FYI, I'm a 38 year old female, and this happened around 6pm when the streets were busy. I totally get the whole embarassment thing and letting the person pretend it never happened, I just knew that if I had seen the same thing happen to someone else, I would have checked on them, even briefly. I guess I was just suprised and wanted to see what others would have done in the same situation.

I fell during a run in Prospect Park a couple of years ago - a really spectacular somesault on the trail by the ice rink - and a few people were kind enough to see if I was ok then. I wondered if the difference then was that there's some sense of community amongst runners, and that made it easier for strangers to intervene?

Anyway, thanks for all the understanding responses

trixienyc

I'll be honest, I don't think the people who passed by were considering "oh, she may be embarrassed....embarrassed and bloody, lets just keep a move on"
nope. there are 2 kinds of people, people who are considerate and caring, and people who couldnt care less. (ok, 3, iPod/cellphone users....I'm persons 1 and 3)
If someone were to stumble and keep on going, I'd not bother to ask, heck, I trip on my own feet sometimes...(actually in front of South Paw a lot, however I think they finally fixed their damn sidewalk) BUT, if I saw someone take a nosedive and not bounce back up, and be bleeding, I'd sure as shit stop, check on them offer a tissue or the sleeve of my shirt.
it's just common compassion and courtesy. same as giving up your seat on the train, somewhat similar to letting someone jump ahead of you on the grocery line when they have one can and you have a full cart.

kerrberger

so, I thought your post was a bit whiney (since you're new), but yes, I'd help somebody up.

anna anderson

Meant to also say that my preggo friends tell me it's almost always WOMEN who give up seats for them.

brooklynpotter

Flexichick wrote: Meant to also say that my preggo friends tell me it's almost always WOMEN who give up seats for them.

that's exactly why i came to the thread right now, to write this exact thing. flexi beat me to it.

it always shocks me how people don't give up seats on the subway; i had a cast on for a month and maybe once someone gave me a seat. once, a very respectable man in a very respectable suit actually pushed me out of the way to get the damned seat. and i stood in front of him, holding the rail thing, with my cast half a food from him, and he didn't so much as look at me. jerk.

(and much as the disabled seats have the little sign that person sitting there should move, how many of us would ask the person sitting there?)

for any number of reasons, i can't comfortably stand for long periods of time. i hate having to give up my seat. but, i believe that's my responsibility unless i'm really, really sick, no matter where i'm sitting on the train, to give up my seat to pregnant or disabled people, moms with tons of kids, the elderly.

king without a crown

Once when I was really sick and simply HAD to go to work I took a decongestant (which often make me loopy and weak) and got on the F train. I transfered to the R at 4th Ave/9th St. I guess walking down all of those stairs got the best of me because I started getting so dizzy I thought I was going to faint (blackness creeping in). The R came, I got on (crowded at 7:30 or so) and I just knew I was going to hit the floor if I didn't sit down.

I went over to the seats with the signs on them saying you MUST give up the seats for disabled passengers (or something similiar) and asked a young guy (in his 20s - a suit-wearing Wall St. type (as was I)) to please let me sit down because I was feeling ill. I think I said "I would never ask this if it wasn't an emergency, but I really need to sit down right now because I'm not feeling well".

Fucker just stared at me.

So I said "I'm pregnant and I'm about to faint if you don't get up and let me sit down!".

So he did.

I was desperate

As I sat there with my head between my knees, a nice old lady next to me rubbed my back and told me that during her first pregnancy she felt like that all the time.

brooklynpotter

Flexichick wrote:

So I said "I'm pregnant and I'm about to faint if you don't get up and let me sit down!".

So he did.

I was desperate

i have done this any number of times when i thought i couldn't stand anymore. i've even pushed out my stomach and rubbed it with my hand.

have we all done this? (meaning, haven't we all done this? or maybe not)

idlewild

brooklynpotter wrote: [quote=Flexichick]

So I said "I'm pregnant and I'm about to faint if you don't get up and let me sit down!".

So he did.

I was desperate

i have done this any number of times when i thought i couldn't stand anymore. i've even pushed out my stomach and rubbed it with my hand.

have we all done this? (meaning, haven't we all done this? or maybe not)

I just cut the cheese. No pleading or faking pregnancy required.

mtparkslope

Idlewild wrote: [quote=brooklynpotter][quote=Flexichick]

So I said "I'm pregnant and I'm about to faint if you don't get up and let me sit down!".

So he did.

I was desperate

i have done this any number of times when i thought i couldn't stand anymore. i've even pushed out my stomach and rubbed it with my hand.

have we all done this? (meaning, haven't we all done this? or maybe not)

I just cut the cheese. No pleading or faking pregnancy required.



hahahaha. I will put that in my "arsenal" for next time.

idlewild

hahahaha. I will put that in my "arsenal" for next time.

Eat plenty of garlic and watercrest the night before.