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recent
Running to the gym this morning (6:30am), I passed by a young woman passed out on the side of the street. I gave her a gentle shake to see if she was OK, but there was absolutely no reaction, so, inspired by James Luckett's vivid description of when he used to develop crime-scene photos, I pulled out my camera. Oh yeah... I also called 119 (yes, here it's 119).
As I was waiting, another foreigner pulled up in his truck. He had passed by earlier and came back because he was worried. It had been several minutes since he passed by, and the rode is already pretty busy by this time, which really makes me wonder. What does it say about Japan that the only two who stop to help are foreigners?
Seeing us hovering over the girl, a third passer-by (this time Japanese) stopped and had the great idea to use her own cell phone to contact some of her friends. After calling a few of the numbers in her phones memory, he finally got ahold of the friend she had been drinking with, and after a few minutes this friend showed up to "take care of her" which meant shaking and slapping her so hard we almost had to pull him off. It did work though, and by now she was breathing a bit (I could swear she totally stopped breathing for a few minutes earlier).
The other two good Samaritans went on their way, and I slowly began walking toward the gym, not wanting to leave before the ambulance arrived. I was afraid the "friend" would take off with her body and when hey had my phone number on record at 119 headquarters. (I don't know if there as serious about pranking 119 here as they are in the US, but I didn't want to find out.)
Freaky... was nice of you guys to check over her. Using her cell was an excellent idea.
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