I'm on vacation in Seattle.
Today we went to Pike Place for a couple of hours before my friend Casey went to a doctor's appointment. As we were walking to catch the bus to Queen Anne, we witnessed a man on a motorcycle being run over by an amphibious vehicle, one of those stupid Duck tours of Seattle. He was first in line at his lane on the intersection. The light turned green and instead of waiting for him to go, the amphibious vehicle went first and ran him over. His motorcycle flew to one side and stayed by the curb and he was dragged under the vehicle for about twenty feet. The vehicle got all the way across the intersection before stopping.
As soon as it stopped dragging him, I sprinted over there and got on the ground next to him. Another chick called 911 and a guy stood over me. At first, I honestly thought that he was dead. Initially, he did not respond when I touched his shoulder, but we all started talking around him and he came to. He said that he was alive and I told him that I was a registered nurse and that I was going to stay with him until the medics arrived. I had him move his toes (which he did successfully) as well as his fingers. He told me his lower back really hurt and that his left arm was totally f*cked because the vehicle had run over it. He was moving his head and neck fluidly and speaking clearly. Fortunately he was wearing a helmet as well as proper riding attire including thick leather gloves. He told me that he was in a lot of pain so I led him through guided breathing.
The medics got there in about five minutes and the police cleared us away. One of the officers asked if any of us had seen what happened and about three of us volunteered that we'd seen it. The cop got my contact information and I explained what I saw, but honestly it was a blur. I knew as soon as I saw him hung under that damn thing, I needed to run to him because I didn't know if any other medical personnel were on hand (I guess there weren't, as I was the only one who got really close to him?). It's a rule that once you identify yourself as medical personnel, you have to stay with the victim until you're able to pass him off to the next stage of personnel.
I tried to talk about it with Tyler, our friend Andrew and Casey. I think that Casey was the only one who was affected by it like I was because he followed me to the guy and was not five feet away from me as I was down by him. Andrew and Tyler stayed across the street on the corner because they didn't want to crowd him. Tyler and Andrew made light of the situation and cracked puns all day whilst Casey and I sort of kept to ourselves. It actually really upset me and I know that it upset Casey because he mentioned it over dinner. Casey's always better at stating his opinions. I think that Tyler shows he's upset by something by joking about it, but it really was serious. It's difficult when people have different ways of expressing their horror.
I can't sleep now though. I have that tightness in my chest that comes from being scared. I keep thinking how badly this would have gone had that man not been wearing his helmet and good motorcycling clothing. His helmet was stuck in the undercarriage of that vehicle -- would we have been witness to a decapitation? How does one recover from seeing something like that? If he'd been sh*ttily dressed like a lot of motorcyclists, wearing a t-shirt and a light jacket, how much blood would have been scraped across the pavement? Would his arm have been in smeared pieces on the ground because it wasn't encased in two layers of leather? If he didn't have one of those nice face screens on his helmet, would the roughness of the pavement have taken his nose off? Would he have broken his chin and been unable to talk to us and tell us how he was feeling? What if it hadn't been raining -- would he have had that face screen down? What if the force from the vehicle hitting the motorcycle had sent it spinning into the people standing on the corner, as there were a lot of people there waiting for the crosswalk to change?
I'm horrified by the thoughts that are going through my head, all of the outcomes avoided by him being a rider conscious of the dangers involved with driving a vehicle that doesn't completely encase him. It could have been so much worse and I can't stop thinking about it, I just can't. I don't have any sleeping pills with me, so I can't force sleep, but I also don't think I'll be able to sleep naturally tonight, or at least I won't sleep restfully. I know from the news that he's been upgraded from serious to satisfactory, but it's still bothering me.
I just had to get this off my chest. Maybe talking about it will help. It's just really scaring me even though it's been almost twelve hours now. I also keep thinking about how I was possibly the only medical personnel in that massive group of people who were wandering about that part of town at that time. I was alone. There was no doctor, no other nurses, just me. I thought that there were always more of us, but not in this case.
It's just very scary. I hope I never have to see this ever again.