Flame Free Confession III: Even More Flame Free (Part 1)

I ordered a new carberator for my chainsaw and the UPS guy delivered it this morning. My mom said he must have skipped leg day because his legs were smaller than that pencil :rofl:

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The one about those exceptionally festive plates.

If I had like the best cherry pie ever, I would want to have it on one of those plates.

Understandable if you don’t want to share their origin story though. Sometimes it’s better to let it run for a while before back filling with the prequel.

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It’s tough to look good in that uniform.

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Maybe hard to look good, but no excuse to look skinny…

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Damn! This guy has never delivered anything at my house. :sob:

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He’s got a nice package to deliver too

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All we ever get are anorexic ectomorphs. Mom said she thought she was going to have to go unload my new bar when I ordered it because it was kicking the FedEx guy’s ass.
Maybe I should stay home and wait for a nice package to arrive?

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Your mom sounds so badass

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My Mom is definitely a badass. I showed her the pic of the UPS guy above and she said… uh no, HE hasn’t been here. If he would have brought it she would have ran to gate to meet him :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Darker confession:
I was on my way to the grocery store yesterday evening, down a commonly frequented street. In my peripheral vision I saw something red on the ground and when I looked there it was actually a human that layed twisted in a very uncomfortable position on the floor next to some garbage cans.
Now the first thing that crossed my mind, if only for a second, was to keep walking and pretend I didn’t see him. Like apparently anyone else did. I don’t know for how long he had been there but as I said it isn’t an abondoned alley we are talking about.

Obviously I didn’t act on that impulse. I checked if he was breathing, tried to wake him and when he was unresponsive, I called an ambulance. He was intoxicated im some way but stable. Then I waited for the ambulance and guided the paramedics.

So I did everything right but it haunts me that this first impulsive, which was not a cognitive choice, was to just leave the situation. What also disgusted me, was all the people passing me and my unfortunate companion, clearly talking about the man lying unconscious next to the garbage cans but not offering help. Maybe they had the same impulse and acted on it. Two people stopped and asked if they could help. Everyone else was fine with leaving him in the cold.
I am ashamed that my first impulse wasn’t to help and that it needed a cognitive decision for that. I would prefer if the impulse matched what I expect of myself.

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Your response was 100% normal. I’m only on a phone key board so can’t go into it but there are a million studies into why we do this. With competing theories.
Just know this - just about any person that’s ever responded to a cry from help, has had to make a conscious decision to respond. It’s running toward danger. It’s ā€œanti survivalā€. Those people that don’t think ā€œnot my jobā€ are the ones that rush in and die trying to help. They are the horror stories you read of ā€œWhole family killed after they all try rescuing each other from the lakeā€.

So well done. It’s a brave man (person) that steps up. You had 0 idea what you were going to find. That’s scary.
And go easy on your self. You have a self preservation instinct. That’s fine. You can’t help people if you are dead.

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That’s really interesting and didn’t think of it in that way. It’s not the first time I helped someone in need but the first time I have consciously noticed and thought about this impulse to just run away.
Good to know I am not the only one who reacts in such a way. I was a bit ashamed tbh.
I guess it’s the decision to not act on this flight impulse, that counts.
I would have definitely thought a lot more poorly of myself if I left the man there in hope someone else would do what I ended up doing.

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There’s some really interesting things I’ve read over the years, one being that if you’re in need of help in a crowded place single someone out point to them call them by some specifics and ask for help, in crowded places almost everyone will assume that someone else will help and it’s not their responsibility (the story that accompanied this advice was an unfortunate story of a woman being killed in public, screaming for help with zero assistance).

The flip side of that is fire service training you start basic training with this statement (bad paraphrasing): you are the most important person at an incident, then your team, then bystanders, then the person in need - which sounds pretty weird and callous when you first hear it but it makes sense, if you, your team member or a well meaning passerby jumps in without an adequate rescue plan/ resources/training you just escalate the situation to a far far worse scenario. Your initial pause and conscious decision is the better impulse by far.

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This experience definitely refined my decision to refresh my first aid skills. My last class was ten years ago. When the operator on the phone said ā€œif he stops breathing, perform first aidā€ I was like ā€œI… will do my very bestā€ but would not have actually been able to do much of anything.

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This is one of those studies. Its a REALLY odd thing. Another is if someone has a heart attack in a crowed place the chances of them getting help is low than if they have a heart attack in front of a single person. Its called ā€œdisassociated responsibilityā€. If there are 100 people watching any one can help. So if he dies its not your anyone’s fault. Where as if you are the only person there to help and they die. Well its hard to avoid the blame.

I’ve read this before. And I’ve been told similar on training courses for rope access rescue and confined space (low level stuff not as intensive as your training).

Never a bad shout. If I had not done a first aid course my son might be dead. He chocked on an apple when he was 2. We got to the whole blue face almost unconscious stage. I had to slap him 12 times REALLY hard to get it out. As luck would have it the instructor at my last course spent a whole hour on chocking and the reality of - if some one is chocking they are about to die. You have 3 mins to save them. So if you have to break their ribs to dislodge what ever is in there - that is fine.

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I remember this one tale, which was that if you as a person are at risk (physical violence from another) and in desperate need of help it’s better to yell out that there’s a fire than to yell for people to call for the police. As in, it’d be to your direct benefit of other human bodies showed up on the scene. Might not be best for their survival but,,,

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Yeah, my wife called me in one of the first times we fed our kid shredded chicken because he was choking and couldn’t get it out.

THWAP. I hit his back so hard I was worried I’d broken his ribs, but the food shot out in one go. I’ve stayed up to date on CPR certifications for a long time now. We were playing a show in the middle of Richmond at the turnaround point of a big 10K that the city does every year a few years back, and right in the middle of playing ā€œFeelin’ Alrightā€, a guy collapsed next to us, full on heart attack. Joined in a line of people giving CPR. Thought for sure he was dead when the paramedics arrived - tongue lolling out of his mouth, no breathing - read an article the next day, he survived. Unfortunately, movies give the whole ā€œdo CPR and they’ll just snap out of itā€ thing, when in fact, you’re just keeping blood pumping long enough for a defibrillator to arrive. Super important skill.

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GRAPHIC POST

All I remembered was the tutor telling me - the only thing worse than breaking your kids spine is letting them die in your hands. I by blow 10 I was not holding back.

The basics are quiet simple

  • Get help - in the mean time:

  • Clear the airways and use chest compressions to keep the heart and lungs going (there is no need for rescue breaths the compressions get the air moving)

  • Put pressure on anything leaking blood

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Don’t be. As others have said, it’s natural.

Also, your actions speak louder than your impulse.

Does Germany have ā€œGood Samaritan lawsā€?

There’s also a lot to be said about the social and legal incentives. For example in China, there’s been enough cases of scams where the helper ended up getting sued by the families of the victims for ā€œharmingā€ such that parents even advise kids not to help

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Are you referring to an actual law or the biblical story/ moral? I have no idea to what extend your legally obligated to help but I believe there is a law for that.

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