I'm homeless and stay in shelters. One night I had a guy come up to me and started talking about wanting to kill himself. He broke down and started crying after I gave him a smoke. I talked to him about why he wants to die, and what makes him happy. I could tell he wanted to talk.
Suddenly he drops, and hits his head on the ground. He was out, but I slapped his face a few times to try and wake him up. His eyes opened and I asked him what he took. He couldn't say much other then "pills" so I look around for help.
My cellphone is dead, and I'm in th shelter area, so nobody really gives a shit about somebody passing out or overdosing. I'm surrounded by three shelters, so I help the guy up and start carrying him over to one. I banged on the door so they could come get him, but they sent me away because I was yelling? So I carry him to the next one.
I just wanted somebody to call 911 for me, two shelters now have refuse to do that. I carry him to the third shelter which has a detox intake and they accept him. I wait with him until paramedics arrive and hooked him up to check his vitals.
His vitals were ok, but they wanted to take him to the hospital. He refused, so I made sure the shelter had a mat for him for the night. I ditched three bags while I did this. Everything i owned are in those bags. When i got back, they were still there thankfully. But anyway, before I left the guy, he tearfully thanked me. Said I made him want to give life another go, even though we o ly talked for like 20 mins.
I haven't seen him since, but the experience left me thinking about why I did what I did. If I took pills in order to die, I wouldn't want to be saved at that point...but at the same time, the guy thanked me, and I'm pretty sure he regretted popping whatever he did.
Most people out here on the street will step over a body and not think twice. When I see somebody out on the ground, obviously fucked up, I'll at least check on them...but maybe I should of just minded my own business..I'm conflicted about if I'm the good guy who maybe saved a life, or if I'm the bad guy who just prolonged somebody's suffering.
Any opinions? What would you do in that situation? Should I have minded my own business or should I hold onto the part of me that wants to help people?..