I came across a man dying... and felt totally useless

I’ve always fancied myself a man of action in an emergency.

From memory, I think I’ve done a first aid course three times in my life: the first around 2007 to work FIFO; the second, an office refresher course around 2017; and the third, an infant first aid course in 2023.

Surely with those courses rattling around my grey matter, I’d be prepared when faced with a genuine emergency?

Instead, I was more first-aid dummy than first-aid responder.

After picking my son up from daycare this week, I walked into the car park to find a man lying on his back and a woman performing CPR.

I was dumbfounded. I’ve witnessed intense situations before in this job, but usually once the issue is all in hand – never without the presence of emergency services men and women who know what they are doing.

After moving past the disbelief, I buckled my son in my car nearby with his favourite book about dinosaurs and walked back over.

The woman had clearly exhausted herself, but was continuing compressions at the direction of the triple-zero operator.

I knew I needed to help – and I wanted to help – but I found myself frozen. I was a traffic cone at a car crash.

I could hear sirens close by, but I was trapped in a loop with my thoughts.

“She is getting more tired. Should I offer to take over? He looks dead, is there any point? What if he gets brain damage?”

It felt like 30 minutes had passed, when in reality it had only been a minute or two.

Instead of taking over the CPR, I ran towards the car park entrance to direct the ambos to the commotion.

I met two paramedics at the entrance, and they hurried over with their gurney and told the woman to stop and directed me to start compressions.

Those I remembered. I started pumping, and the man started making snorting noises. I remember thinking: “This is nothing like the dummy.”

The paramedics eventually took over. They strapped on the defibrillator but found a pulse. More cars arrived, and he was wired up with all sorts of contraptions while they began assisting his breathing.

Adrenalin pumping, I thought to myself: “You absolute gronk – why didn’t you take over sooner?”

The more minutes that passed, the more I ran through my woeful response in the scenario.

I forgot every vowel and consonant in DRSABCD. I forgot about the St John app I had in my phone with its wealth of information for situations exactly like this.

The second D stands for defibrillator – I could have probably found one in the daycare or the nearby shops.

For a good few minutes, all I could do was put my hands on my hips and think words to the effect of, “F--- me, this is intense”.

Thankfully, the man survived.

But it was a reality check that maybe I’m not the hero-in-waiting I thought I was.

However, to witness the calm professionalism of the St John paramedics was inspiring.

To me, it was one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had. To them, saving a life was just another day in the office.

Every member had a job they were performing swiftly, no one was in the way of anyone else – it was like watching a ballet.

If I could borrow even 5 per cent of their effortless heroism, I know I would be 200 per cent more helpful in a future emergency than I was on Tuesday.

What my experience has really driven home is the importance of being up to scratch with first aid, for the sake of my family and friends.

And what I’ve learnt is that when it comes to being a help or a hindrance in an emergency, practice makes perfect.

Time to sign up for another first-aid course.

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