Who can I contact (other than the police) to help people in trouble?
Posted by ZenyatasBalls96@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 44 comments
Just had a late-night encounter with a man while waiting for my bus after work tonight. I came round the corner and usually it’s drunk students my age coming back from pubs/clubs, yet sat inside the bus stop was a poor man in tears. I live in a city so being asked for spare change and sorts at this time of night isn’t too uncommon, but this guy wasn’t asking for anything.
I asked if he was okay and initially his responses were impossible to understand; he was slurring all his words. But after some back and forth he eventually explained he’d been beaten up by a hockey stick, had his arm broken and needed to go to hospital. According to him, an ambulance(?) wouldn’t take him because it wasn’t deemed to be an emergency. In agony he took off his coat and I could see what was probably bone sticking through his long sleeve shirt. He even tried getting me to touch it!!
There was a police vehicle parked not even 50m on the other side of the road, but when I said “I‘m going to get you some help“ and began walking towards it, he tried running away - explaining I can’t get the police.
At this point I’m stuck. My bus was coming soon and this guy’s poor arm is completely snapped but doesn’t want police and an ambulance supposedly won’t take him. He says he has a taxi driver friend who will take him to hospital, and then from there to home, but needs money to pay him. Luckily, I had a little bit of cash on me so gave him the £20 he needed, wished him well and caught my bus back to uni - while he wandered off to where he said his taxi friend would pick him up.
Overall, I’m a bit shaken from it and regret not contacting someone else to make sure he gets to hospital/home safely. That’s why I wanted to ask are there any (non-police) services I can contact in this scenario that are more than just a helpline? Or should I have just asked the police for help instead?
NoNameNoNumba@reddit
He will spend that 20 on crack, smack or spice and deal with the arm tomorrow lol
mumwifealcoholic@reddit
Hopefully that will give the person some relief. Withdrawals are terrible.
Technical_Front_8046@reddit
Username checks out.
mumwifealcoholic@reddit
It does:)
theartshole@reddit
Why is that funny to you? And also, so what?
Confudled_Contractor@reddit
Yeah you’ve been mugged off.
Tallman_james420@reddit
You've been scammed
mdmnl@reddit
Ah, the old compound fracture trick. That and The Spanish Prisoner will get you every time.
Tallman_james420@reddit
OP could see 'what was probably a bone'
Or probably not. They wouldn't accept police assistance or have an ambulance called, but happily accepted £20 for their 'taxi friend'
VerbingNoun413@reddit
A very specific level of friend who will take him to the hospital with no questions asked but costs £20
Bagel-luigi@reddit
Sounds like his friend is just a normal taxi
BamPotNoodle@reddit
This is a scam and has been going on for years
SunSimilar9988@reddit
Spiderman
LAcasper@reddit
An ambulance will absolutely come if you have a compound fracture (bone sticking out) due to the risk of further injury and infection.
I think you did what you could OP. Hopefully it was genuine and he got his taxi to hospital.
Majestic-Pen-8800@reddit
I don’t wish to be rude but this is an absolutely ridiculous question. If someone needs medical help you need to call and ambulance and if they have been a victim of crime, the Police. There is nobody else who can help.
Just use some common sense and whatever the person says, call the Police and the ambulance anyway.
The fact that Police were a short distance away and could have immediately helped makes your query all the more preposterous.
CaptainYid@reddit
Something about his story sounds suspect.
I'm a paramedic in the control room. Assault with a weapon would guarantee at least a clinical callback, most likely an ambulance.
No means of getting to hospital? Even with a massive wait for a vehicle, they'd be offered a taxi.
Then they ran when you approached police?
Yeah... Suspect
ZenyatasBalls96@reddit (OP)
Obviously his injury was drugs/gang related, so wanted to avoid that encounter with police. I’m sure the injury was real - I’ve never seen someone sob like that before though
CaptainYid@reddit
Yeah probably known to the plod too. Hence why he ran.
The sob could have been stress and adrenaline. You did the human thing to stop and try help. Not many people would have so fair play to you for it!
ZenyatasBalls96@reddit (OP)
Thanks
seriousrikk@reddit
Sounds like you tried to help which is absolutely lovely and commendable.
Personally as soon as the conversation turns to needing cash my suspicion goes up. I have a mate who is a taxi driver. He’s also a mate, so wouldn’t need cash up front to take me to hospital if I was fucked up.
Obviously I wasn’t there but I think walking over to the police car would have been my only choice.
ZenyatasBalls96@reddit (OP)
He said his mate works for a taxi company so is constantly tracked and therefore unable to give free rides. I do agree I think they’d have helped, but in the moment I didn’t want the guy to run off and then have no help at all
Think-Ladder7925@reddit
He’s probably wanted by them or been battered for a reason.
Shame you had to go through that, but it’s best to just carry on with your day.
ZenyatasBalls96@reddit (OP)
Thanks, I’m fine really just a bit worried for the guy.
slimmer01@reddit
Why not an ambulance? Try not to feel bad, you tried to help.
ZenyatasBalls96@reddit (OP)
He said he’d already tried an ambulance but they wouldn’t take him as it wasn’t deemed an emergency. Which is hard to believe because it was a very bad break and the guy was in lots of pain
PomegranateV2@reddit
Fake bone.
CableZestyclose3681@reddit
You ring 999 and explain that a man with a broken arm is showing signs of a serious head injury and give them the location. They'll respond to that quite quickly. 20 quid isn't really going to help here, like ever, at all.
PeppercornWizard@reddit
This is a situation where you call an ambulance.
If he doesn’t want an ambulance when they turn up to deal with his exposed fracture, that’s on him.
Only_Book_995@reddit
An ambulance would likely have taken him to hospital if he truly had no other way or was in substantial pain. Other than that you could flag down a taxi and ask if they'll take them for free - assuming it's not a million miles away I imagine most would
bacon_cake@reddit
... eventually
It's not uncommon for them to take hours or even days for non-emergency calls.
Only_Book_995@reddit
Correct, it varies a lot depending upon the place and time though the information from the OP suggests it would have been a long wait. I was putting it forward as a hypothetical option rather than a preferred one
Redditboyy_@reddit
Either he is a criminal or a fraud who scammed u 20 bucks. But u should not feel bad because u tried to help him as a good human
Zealousideal-Sail893@reddit
Quid not bucks.
iffyClyro@reddit
Not really anyone else you could have contacted other than paying a taxi for him or something.
If he has warrants or a locate trace or something and that’s why he didn’t want the police he was probably exaggerating things slightly.
Police would have taken him to hospital as a first port of call regardless even if they’d have had to deal with his warrant afterwards.
Poor guy obviously living a chaotic life.
No-Blackberry-3945@reddit
Had a similar situation with a young lad (about 17) who was drunk. Called a taxi, taxi refused him because he was drunk and incapable then though I offered the taxi driver the fare to front and offered my details to pay any costs if he was sick. Called police who wouldn't help, eventually got an ambulance who were probably quite rightly pissed off at this young lad basically just needing a taxi. It was -3°C outside and he was wearing jeans and a t shirt unable to stand.
It's a bit of a blind spot as it's a waste of public service resource (albeit the argument is it prevents something awful happening) but I get where the taxi driver comes from that if the kid throws up he's lost a night's earnings.
Kid was sobering up slowly and was starting to pour his heart out. All he wanted to do in life was be a mechanic but didn't know how to do it. Started telling me how his mum hates him and has never bothered with him, dad not in the picture and that we were the first people to actually show him any "love" in his life. All we'd done is get him a blanket, a bottle of water and sit with him until we got him home.
iffyClyro@reddit
If you call the police the call handler will absolutely bat you off.
If you approached a couple of cops as OP is describing they’d probably give the guy a lift.
Also doesn’t sound like your guy had a broken arm or anything really requiring medical attention aside from being pished.
Flavourifshrrp@reddit
There’s a reason he doesn’t want police involved.
It may or may not be a scam, especially as he doesn’t want an ambulance but is going to go to hospital, but he sounds like he has been up to no good.
Technical_Front_8046@reddit
Call 999 or 101 depending on the severity of the persons injuries.
Many years ago, I was filling up my car in the early hours of the morning. A lady who spoke very poor English approached me and asked for help. She said she had travelled to the UK in the back of a lorry and felt very unwell (she also looked awfully unwell, was clammy and was complaining of pain in her left arm).
At the same time she didn’t want an ambulance as she was worried the police would arrest her for arriving here in a lorry, but wanted me to help her. I called 999 and waited for the ambulance and police to turn up.
Unfortunately there isn’t much else I could do. I can’t offer medical assistance and even if I could, it wouldn’t be appropriate to be treating someone on a petrol forecourt and in the nicest possible way, it isn’t really my issue if she’s going to get detained by the police. People are responsible for their own actions.
If I had driven her to hospital or put her in a taxi, the hospital would have notified the police that she wasn’t here legitimately.
She asked for help, she got help.
In your situation, I would have called 999 and explained I had come across this chap who looked to have a broken arm with the bone coming through the skin. An ambulance would have responded.
The early hours of the mornings seem to attract lots of people with various social issues or problems. All you can do is report to the authorities where appropriate.
Alt_AC_2023@reddit
If you're in a university town there may be some "street pastors".
I'm not 100% sure what they do aside from handing out flip-flops to help drunks in high heels get home, but they are out there to help people.
Otherwise there's the police who may be able to help themselves or may be able to suggest someone non uniformed like a street pastor / homeless charity to help.
Busy-Salt6884@reddit
Broken arm doesn't really generally need an ambulance TBF and is unlikely to get you one nowadays. If he was slurring and wasn't under the influence he may well have had a head injury too though.
You don't have to acquiesce to people's desires in these situations at all though. If you want to call the cops, call the cops.
Work-ya-wood@reddit
Ambulance
Fatal-Eggs2024@reddit
111
RetroRegretso@reddit
Police. Don't feel bad though.
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