The Right Place at the Right Time

I cannot remember the last time I ever ran as fast as I did last night. I was in the kitchen, preparing the marinade for tonight's chicken dinner when me and my husband heard the screeching of tires followed quickly by the sound of crunching metal and shattering glass. We go outside onto the walkway to try and pin point where the sound came from. Off in the distance, a woman screams and we start to run. As I am running, I pass a few people who have stopped along the way, asking me if I know the people in the accident. I am too out of breath to answer, still running at full speed but thinking to myself "does that really matter?". I keep running, my bare feet pounding on the unforgiving concrete as I follow the long curve that is my street all the way around until I reach the end of the block. My husband is running in front of me and as my eyes quickly assess what I am seeing I start yelling at everyone "DON'T MOVE ANYONE!". I scan the cars quickly with my eyes and they seem to be empty, completely surrounded in a sea of broken glass, plastic and metal  but I notice there is an Indian woman lying on the grass, screaming, while a couple people try and talk to her.  I make my way to her, all but shoving the people there aside for it is clear to me that none of them have any sort of medical training. My hands come around her neck in a collar, bracing it from movement and I start to ask her questions, hoping she can understand the language I am speaking to her. I ask "where are you hurt", "can you feel your arms and legs", "can you breath ok". I want to check for injuries but the woman is rightly hysterical and every time I slip one of my hands away from her neck and head, she tries to sit up or move her head, so I keep my hands where they are, letting her body and movements, her terrified cries and the things she won't move, tell me where she is injured. Her neck, I palpate with gentle fingertips and I can feel a small break along the transverse process of one of her vertebrae just down from her shoulders. Her right side, back and kidney, she keeps trying to touch and soothe so I know there is damage and pain there. I don't know where this woman came from at this point and my fear is that she was walking and got hit as the other cars collided or that she was thrown from one of the vehicles that lay like  broken accordions in the intersection. I am talking to her as I make my mental notes, trying to calm her and let her know that she is safe and that help is on it's way. I am solely focused on her, her injuries and the scene before me. The woman continues to cry "oh mama" and begs someone to call her husband and mother. She starts talking about small children and a baby and I ask if there are kids in the car. Someone checks and I am relieved that there is no one there. From what I gathered, this woman had just had a baby not too long ago, judging by her still slightly pregnant-looking abdomen and milk engorged breasts, and that her mother had the kids and she was on her way there to get them. I assured her they would all be contacted, that she needed to concentrate on taking slow breaths. Help finally arrives and as the firemen on the scene come over and assess her, they ask me to stay where I am, immobilizing the neck and head so that more damage can be avoided. They ask if I am medically trained, most likely because of the expert way I am holding the woman and I tell them that I am a Massage Therapist. This seems to please the fireman, knowing that someone on the scene had some medical background. I continue to hold her as they place the collar on her neck, my thumbs brushing across her cheeks in a slow rhythmic circle, still trying to relax the woman who is in obvious pain and shock. The paramedics finally arrive and after what feels like an hour of kneeling on my knees on the glass covered grass and cement, I finally let go of my charge and allow them to step in. I step back, still surveying the scene to hear that someone had taken the woman out of the car. I was so angry! She never should have been moved like that. That is car accident triage rule #1. Never move someone without making sure that their neck and back is supported. Internal injuries and especially spinal and neck injuries are very dangerous things and upon hearing that she was moved, I start to worry for her more, worry that maybe something might not have been so bad if only I had gotten there to make sure she wasn't moved sooner. However, this is not the way it happened and I reacted to the scene in front of me. Once the woman was in the back of the ambulance I made my way home, my own fears over the car accident and the memories of my own car accident beginning to swamp me now that I was no longer needed and was free to just...process. I have always been amazed with how quickly and efficiently my mind can switch in a time of crisis and I take a lot of pride in knowing that I am not someone who will freeze under that sort of pressure. I assess and apply, my skills and intuition taking over where others stand gawking at the scene, afraid or unsure of what to do to help. Maybe I should have been a doctor or a paramedic or something. Maybe my next life I will do just that. For now, as I look down at my bruised knees and swollen ankles and feet and although I am still shaken up over seeing the cars, the woman and the trauma of it all, I can also honestly say that I am thankful. I am thankful I heard the accident, thankful that I could run so hard and fast in my bare feet amongst the broken glass and debris, thankful that I had the skills necessary to aid the woman/firemen/paramedics while they did their assessments and thankful that I was able to soothe her in some small way when she was so terrified. I am also very thankful that her injuries were not worse and that there was no fatality and that my own memories and fears didn't get in the way of me helping her, as my fears sometimes have a bad habit of doing. Last night was a crazy, adrenaline induced nightmare for the woman, the other driver and even myself, but today....today is a day to be thankful. Rayanika..I wish you a fast and speedy recovery and I pray that this experience will not stop you from driving and experiencing your independence the way it has done to me for so long. It is something I am trying very hard to get back.
Namaste...be blessed.