Collapsed Lady

On my way to work today, a pregnant lady collapsed and passed out right in front of me.

It was on the Overground train. 

She had gotten to her stop at Blackhorse road and was just about to alight. And suddenly she slowly collapsed on her back, landing on the floor inside the train. 

I was already in panic mode, and the Nigerian in me was quickly gonna grab her as I saw her fall, to prevent her from falling to the floor and possibly hitting her head, but I was surprised to see the other passengers standing and watching her collapse, without doing anything. (This is quite a British attitude anyway. They’ll watch you fall and then ask you “are you okay”? Lol)

Part of me felt I might be doing the wrong thing by grabbing her since many others weren’t attempting to do the same, so I held on a bit. I’m pretty new in town, so not entirely sure about what the acceptable reaction is in certain situations.

After she had landed on the floor unconscious, a young Black lady then rushed to her asking “are you okay”? She took off her jumper and put the lady’s head on it for comfort. 

Someone else quickly pressed the train’s alarm so it wouldn’t move, and shortly, the train driver came over.

Another white lady on the train started calling the emergency ambulance service.

Turns out this lady who had collapsed, 33yr old, was 20 weeks pregnant. This came out after she had slightly regained consciousness and slowly started responding to questions. 

Unfortunately, she couldn’t communicate well in English, she could only speak Portuguese. Interestingly and luckily, one of the passengers said he could communicate in Portuguese. He’s a white guy whose mom is Brazilian.

According to the Portuguese guy translating the lady’s responses, she said her eyes went black and she couldn’t move. She also mentioned she had headaches.

Before you know it about 7 of the passengers including myself had gathered around the lady to support her. Even though the ambulance took over an hour before they arrived, the passengers didn’t leave the lady. 

Photo credit: TFL

It was so beautiful to see these passengers calling and texting their offices that they were running late whilst helping the lady. I was almost in tears.

• One of the station’s staff ran to get her water,

• One passenger was checking her pulse,

• One was gently massaging her stomach to check that her baby is moving,

• Another of the passengers, a Portuguese-speaking doctor came to support,

• One was massaging the lady’s palm to keep her awake.

• With the lady’s permission, the Portuguese-speaking guy phoned her husband to inform him of his wife’s situation.

• Someone sat on the train seat beside her to block off the sun’s reflection from her face.

• A mother with her buggy offered her baby wipes.

People waited till they were told by the driver to alight. All the passengers were discharged from the train because of this lady, and they didn’t complain.

And when the paramedics finally arrived, one of the passengers volunteered to go with the lady to the hospital till her family member came. 

This is phenomenal. These people had places to go but they all halted to attend to the sick lady.

The love was massive that the lady started crying.

LESSON:

I wanted to share this because it’ll be my first time witnessing such a magnanimous display of love and support in the UK. 

I believe we all have a role to play in this life, and in the life of one another, irrespective of who we are and where we’re from. 

This is my takeaway from this experience!

In as much as there’s racism, there’s also love. And love always conquers! 

Photo credit: The Guardian, TFL.

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