Have you ever been witness to something so traumatic you simply cannot get the pictures out of your head? Well, the other night we saw such a sight. I have actually been trying to formulate words to blog about this but was so saddened by the event and the culture behind what transpired that words just could not express how I felt and coming up with the appropriate words to talk about it all just seemed impossible. (Hence the delay in blog posts as of late)Sorry about that.
We saw an accident. A hurtfully distressing one. A man on a motor bike had crashed into the pavement head first from the looks of his head from taking a corner too fast. This happens everyday in Chennai, but thank the Lord we do not see it often.
It was late and dark so the usually busy road was mostly deserted. The man was surrounded by people "helping". It was all I could do to stay in the car and not rush over myself to assist as their helping was doing more harm than good. My eyes desperately searched from the car for a helmet in the street. I pleaded for there to be a helmet around…someplace. But there was none to be found.** That made things especially hard as his injuries could have easily been prevented. As a result he lay on the pavement appearing to be fighting for his life.
In America we are taught at an early age to help when people are in emergency situations such as this and basic first aid is known to a large percentage of us. We also all know the number to 911. In America, an ambulance would arrive within minutes and EMTs would administer immediate aid doing everything possible to keep the man alive. Here in India, there is no 911. I mean there are numbers you can call for an ambulance but each hospital/ambulance service has its own number so it is not a nationalized system where anyone at anytime can call for help and expect quality care. It was such a lack of comfort as we sat helplessly in the backseat of our car glued to the glass windows keeping us in as we literally watched as this man bled to death.
The people around "helping" were more killing him than helping as they kept forcing him to sit up. With his head gushing and unconscious it seemed ridiculous and pointless. While sitting in our car we excruciatingly watched as several men picked the man up and scrunched his body in the back of a tiny auto rickshaw...we assume to take him to get more help. Instead of laying him out straight (impossible in an auto rickshaw) he was crumpled and it was agonizing to watch as certainly he had bones broken and not in a place allowing him to breathe and help the process of survival. It was dire. I have never seen so much blood and felt so powerless or sadder during our time in India. You see, a bystander or one of the men surrounding the injured man could have called for help. An ambulance would come, eventually, but the person who called the ambulance pays the bill for the call, the ride, and the hospital stay along with whatever aid, procedures, or medications were administered. Who would ever call, right? Such a hopeless system. It certainly discourages people from getting help for anyone in such urgent situations.
Part of the problem with people's response to situations like these is the understanding of Karma that rules this culture. The person who is in the accident must have done something wrong at some point in his life and literally deserved this accident. This explains why often there is no sense of urgency to "save" the victims. This governs how things are done and goes to explain the general lack of respect put on human life here in India. Karma. IKES.
In the case we saw people just put him in the back of the auto and send him off. It is possible by that point he had passed away and there was no where to take him but home to his family, but that thought made me ill. I like to think that he made it safely to the hospital but it is unlikely. I am pretty sure I saw him pass away. He had a look. Hard to describe. At one point the men surrounding him had sat him upright and his eyes fluttered open for a second and then his shoulders slumped, his eyes rolled back, and his head fell just in time to be caught as he fell backwards again. He was just "gone”. It was something I am struggling to shake even now thinking about it. With all the people around him "helping" did anyone offer comfort through the pain? We were praying in the car for certain as there was nothing else we could do. It was somewhat comforting to know that we were doing something. Tough to be witness to such an event.
Rama ( our driver ) told us that night that that happens every day. Miles will talk more about Karma and what we have learned in another post to come as that is not what I want to emphasize here. We are still learning and wrestling with things like this that come up every day as we learn more and more about this culture around us. I just wanted to share my thoughts and put it out there (finally). Thankful that God has sheltered our eyes from the disgusting horrors that happen on the roads so frequently and also thankful that we do not have to wrestle with Karma and justifying all that happens because of the actions, decisions, or choices we have made. Well, whether you believe in Karma or not, the system in place here in India for medical emergencies certainly doesn’t place much esteem or value on protecting or preserving human life…and that haunting fact is lingering with me even now and hurting my heart.
** There are helmet laws here that do attempt to protect citizens. It is mandatory for the driver of a motor bike or scooter to wear a helmet but no other riders are required to wear them. We have seen up to six people on a bike and none of them were wearing helmets. This is typical. Most locals carry a helmet on the handle bars or attached to the back of the bike and if a police man is spotted the helmet is slipped on until he is out of site. Many do wear helmets but the majority of drivers we see do not.
