the heart attack

On the way to work today I noticed a shopping trolley on the pavement. Soon thereafter I noticed a pair of feet sticking out under the trolley!

Once up cloce I saw that it was a very pale looking man lying on the ground. For a split second I thought he was dead, but as I approached him he moved ever so slightly.

"Hello, are you awake? Can you hear me?" I leaned over and asked the man.

He stirred and looked at me, and told me he had a pain in his heart.

" I will get you an ambulance" I said, and as I got my phone out the nurse in me took over: "Is it a sharp, stabbing pain in your chest or is it more of a dull kind of pain?" I asked to see what sort of heart/chest problems we might be dealing with here.

"No ambulance" he said, sounding a lot better all of a sudden. "Don't worry, I will go home".

"So where do you live?" I continued, thinking I couldn't just leave the poor man there but walk him home.

He stood up. Looking pale as before but apart from that perfectly fine. I was confused. He put his arm around me and said " we're from channel 3, doing a documentary. I've been lying here for over an hour. Lots of people have passed me here, but you are the first person to stop and ask me how I'm doing. Thank you."

I couldn't really take it in. Felt a bit foolish to be honest. "Are you SURE you're OK?" I asked. He said he was and so I walked off. Never asked what documentary they were doing. Never asked where the cameras were. Just walked off.

Now, when I've digested the episode, I'm a bit surprised over what he told me. What kind of society do I live in where people don't stop to help someone in need? Scary. It could've been my father lying there. Or yours.