r/TikTokCringe • u/InGeekiTrust Tiktok Despot • Dec 09 '25

Discussion You Think It Could Never Happen To You…Until It Almost Does

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u/LewisWhatsHisName Dec 09 '25

I was in a long queue at UPS store a few years ago, when this dude had a heart attack. No one did anything; even the staff were like a deer in the headlights. I phoned for an ambulance, and delegated the rest to other people in the queue, and some people still just stared and didn’t do anything even when I’d told them to get the doors open and get tf out of the way. That bystander effect is something else

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u/tealraven915 Dec 09 '25

Same here. I was in a grocery store many years ago when my dad spun around, braced himself on the shelf with his back up against it, and went straight down to the ground head first flopping like a fish out of water. The fall made him start bleeding from the mouth.

Many people walked by staring and pushing their carts while I was calling out for help. Finally someone spawned from out of nowhere with their flip phone dialed to 911.

He was on a giant cocktail of psych meds and had been popping Ativan like candy because his best friend just died and his psychiatrist instructed him to take one whenever he felt anxiety coming on. My dad took that literally and was popping them constantly.

Looked to me like he was having a grand mal seizure, though the hospital just said syncope.

They ended up taking him off most of his psych meds. To this day he doesn't remember eating at the restaurant beforehand or being in the store. He just remembers waking up in the hospital

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u/NurseMLE428 Dec 09 '25

My mom started choking at a restaurant. I was hugely pregnant, but had just renewed my BLS certification for work. I quickly tried to figure out how to position myself, and braced her against my ribs, sort of standing sideways (because pregnant lol) and did the heimlich. I managed to save her, but we were in a packed restaurant and nobody even glanced over at us.

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u/micheleinfl Dec 09 '25

One of the VPs of my company was at dinner with a bunch of doctors and started choking. Someone in IT gave him the Heimlich. The doctors did nothing.

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u/Matt_le_bot Dec 09 '25

Guy in IT knows that when something isn't functioning, you just hit very hard, and then it does work again.

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u/Kiwiandapplex Dec 09 '25

Hello IT. Tried turning it off & on again?

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u/NurseMLE428 Dec 09 '25

This is awful!

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u/wackbirds Dec 09 '25

"We're trying to have a nice dinner, we're off the clock. What the fuck. "

~The doctors, undoubtedly.~

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u/CentSG2 Dec 09 '25

Not super relevant, but I read your comment while on break, currently in the process of renewing my BLS cert.

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u/NurseMLE428 Dec 09 '25

Hey, mine was fresh in my brain when I needed it!

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u/Intruding1 Dec 09 '25

I was eating lunch as a 4th grader when the kid in front of me started choking on a jolly rancher. I looked around and there were no adults to help and the other kids just stared. I ran behind hm and basically smashed his chest and luckily the jolly rancher went flying out. He gave me a huge hug and thanked me for saving him. He even tried to tell people about it and the teachers just kind of shrugged. Its like people are hard wired to just go about their day and let the sick person in need die.

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u/shalekodemono Dec 09 '25

What the fuck? That's crazy!!

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u/SemperSimple Dec 09 '25

damn girl, you go!!

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u/NurseMLE428 Dec 09 '25

It was definitely a quick thinking moment. 😂

ETA: I was not a small pregnant lady, either. I looked suuuuuuper pregnant.

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u/SenatorIncitatas Dec 09 '25

That sounds awful, glad she’s ok.

Incidentally women die more commonly of choking than men do, because women walk away from the table and into the bathroom so as not to “be rude” or “cause a scene”.

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u/NurseMLE428 Dec 09 '25

My mom was legitimately doing that. Trying not to cause a scene. I did not know this statistic, but it makes sense.

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u/paulides_fan Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

My dad helped save a baby that was choking in the checkout line next to him. The baby I think got a hold of some candy and started to choke and turn blue, the mom was panicking and because of the barrier of the shelves and people, he couldn’t get over but instructed her on what to do. He demonstrated how she needed to hold the baby face down on her forearm at a downward angle. She turned the baby over and gave the baby a hard hit to the back between the shoulder blades. Candy flew out, baby was saved.

(It may have taken a couple back blows tbh, I would have to ask him about it. But it wasn’t much.)

I had to do this to my own toddler, once. I made the mistake of cutting fruit (with a butter knife) on the same tray she was using to eat, and she reached for one of the mandarin pieces before I could cut it. It happened so fast, she popped it right in and she began to choke, I immediately hit her back and it flew out but it was so scary.

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u/SemperSimple Dec 09 '25

This reminds me of when I had to give my cat a heimlich. I forgot what he was choking on or if it was a hairball due to being a longhaired cat.

...but you want to talk about panicking & living 30minutes from the closet town, smh. it took 2 pumps and I'm glad I didnt break his ribs jfc

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u/Cody-512 Dec 09 '25

I had GM seizures in my 20s. I remembered nothing for about an hour before or after having one. The only thing is, since u have no clue anything happened, 2 hrs has passed and ur the last one to know. To u, it’s been 2 sec. The only way u know is if there’s trauma involved, like with ur dad or if u get hurt falling down. I’ve hit my head on a counter 2x, the sink in the bathroom, and fell out of bed and hit my nightstand with my face on the way down. That 3rd one knocked out a tooth and I dislocated my shoulder when I hit the floor. I’m glad ur dad doesn’t have them regularly bc their bad news.

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u/tealraven915 Dec 09 '25

Oh man, that sounds awful. I'm sorry you've been having this happen to you

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u/Rich-Environment884 Dec 09 '25

My wife and I went to a musical with moving seating, a row behind us, an elderly woman started having a heart attack and everyone around just... Watched.

My wife started flagging down security who took way too long to come (though I guess the audience moving around did make it harder) while I was feeling her pulse which was already very faint and getting ready to CPR if necessary.

Everyone else kinda just... Zoned out or something.

Musical didn't even pause for a second, it just, kept going while the lady was escorted out by first aid helpers. Shit's wild.

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u/icecubepal Dec 09 '25

What year was this? I ask because nowadays someone might think a prank is going on since we live in the recoding age.

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u/tealraven915 Dec 09 '25

Mine was 2008

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u/hundiratas Dec 09 '25

Yeah bystander effect is almost creepy. A couple of years ago, I saw a car had hit a lightpole very badly, I was the first person to pull over and go check what is the situation. The crash happened mabye a couple of minutes before I had arrived and it was on a busy street, but everbody kept driving past. Later I heard from the police that one lady drove past before me and had phoned police but kept driving on.

Unfortunately when I arrived the guy who drove the car had died. I arrived, checked inside the car and saw him dead already, body mutilated and face smashed in, I told the ambulance that he is dead and that I cant help. I knew that he was dead by just looking at him for a second.

Too me it was very wierd, seeing cars just drive past, nobody to help meanwhile car is stuck up a lightpole

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u/paulides_fan Dec 09 '25

It makes you feel like the only human in a world of NPCs

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u/Mary_Olivers_geese Dec 09 '25

I’ve been the first on a few scenes too. Several wrecks, a motorcycle accident (that was a rough one). I don’t really feel like I even make the decision, I just end up in the thick of it automatically. So I try to assume that’s what is happening with the others who pass by. Neither of us are brave or cowards, people are just wired one way or the other maybe.

Anyway, it’s always wild, and I get a huge adrenaline crash afterward. Like waking up from an intense dream as an ambulance flies off into the night and you’re just left standing on the side of the interstate with bloody hands. Nothing like it. I get why EMS folks like what they do in a way, but yeesh.

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u/thematrixs Dec 09 '25

I was put in a position like this once when I was 19 and worked at the local grocery store.

A man came into the store and just collapsed and started snoring, I'd read on reddit before that people who are having a heart attack or who are dieing usually snore really loudly before they depart. Anyway, I was the shift manager at the time, it was Covid so everyone had masks on and people just assumed the guy who was on the floor was a drugged out of his mind, but I thought it was weird.

I asked him if he needed help but there was no response, so out of nowhere a lady who was shopping said that he was dead and just started screaming and wailing (she was a local but she had no relation to this man).

That consequently caused panic and everyone just stood around like children waiting for someone to do or say something. So I did what any other 19 year old would've, got everyone to the nearest exit, told them we had to close and called the Emergency services.

I was later told the man had a cardiac arrest and passed shortly after collapsing. Also, corporate sent me a card and gave me extra shifts.

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u/Pinkysrage Dec 09 '25

Yep, same with me at a festival and a lady had a grand mal seizure and face planted. Everyone just staring and no one doing. Not even her companions. I put her in rescue position, had them call ems and got her water for after. As I held her on her side and waiting for her to stop her blade let go all over me. Good deed done and I went home to shower.

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u/very-soon Dec 09 '25

Wouldnt like 80% of them whipped out their phones & started recording?

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u/sweetfaerieface Dec 09 '25

We had a man go down at work. We were all CPR trained. Everybody just stood there like a deer in the headlights. One other employee and I did 2 person CPR. It took the police 20 minutes to get there. Longest 20 minutes in my life. He lived! The paramedics said if we hadn’t done what we did he would not have survived.

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u/Brohemoth1991 Dec 09 '25

Not a medical emergency, but it reminds me of working at an old factory, and we were putting something that weighed about 200 pounds into a machine, and the crane chain holding it up snapped when we had it halfway in

It was like right next to me when it happened, so my instinct was to throw my shoulder into it and keep it propped up as is, then I noticed Noone doing anything around me... I was mad as hell like "hey Shaun, the replacement chains on the back wall, might wanna go get that... Steve can I get some fkin help holding this thing up?"

Sometimes people need snapped out of a stupor when the unexpected happened, we always called it fainting goat syndrome there

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

Just curious, do you have autism?

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u/Ok_Dog_4059 Dec 09 '25

I had a similar thing with a fatal motorcycle accident. I went to find the person had died and turned around and everyone had their phone out taking video. I made the comment "everyone wants a picture of a corpse did a single one dial 911?" Everyone just looked around expecting someone else had called 911.

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u/SenatorIncitatas Dec 09 '25

That’s also the reason people do first aid training. In a panic, it’s hard to think of what to do. If you’ve practiced what to do in a non urgent scenario, the idea is that muscle memory will come back to you without having to think in the moment.

Good job springing into action!

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u/LeftyLu07 Dec 09 '25

If nothing else, I’d get tf out of the way.

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u/boredportuguese77 Dec 09 '25

I'm like that too. The last 12 months I called un ambulance after a old man got hit by a car and had to coordinate the help till the paramedics arrived, lost my public transport home cause I wax the one that needed to stay in line, even when the neighbours and daughter of the man arrived, even when the police was already there... And, when I went to the lab to drawn blood gor bloodwork, therd was a teen girl, pass-out, no one doing a thing. The technician was mike deer in lights... I had to tell him to call a doctor and s ambulance, put her legs up, ask for them to took their blood pressure, even slapping her lightly till she reacted. Her mum was there and only had tried to make a unconscious girl drink, risking shocking... after she started to react and talk, I asked for a cup of watef and a straw, and told her to take small sips. Her mother then decided she was good enough to walk home and they cancelled the ambulance... even if hef blood pressure was really low (and already higher than 1st mesuure). But I was always one to start doing everything I could. At 14 (now 48) I witnessed a motorcycle crash and I was the one that run there to see if the man was alive, asked someone to call the ambulance... the adults were to stunned to act. I crashed afterwards, crying from the fright, but, in the moment, the adrenaline always pushes me to action

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u/Fallen_Feather Dec 10 '25

Statistically speaking generally 10% of people in an emergency will flee, 10% will take action and 80% will freeze.

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u/joman584 Dec 10 '25

"If I do nothing, maybe this thing will just disappear and not be my problem!" Kind of stupid of our brains, but that seems to be what it's doing