australian rozie

di·lem·ma
–noun
1. a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.
2. any difficult or perplexing situation or problem.

On my way home from Central Station last week, I saw a guy standing on the corner of Devonshire Street with a huge handful of bloody tissues holding his nose, there were also big drops of blood on the ground next to him. I was like, “Oh my god, did you get bashed up???” He didn’t really answer me, he seemed quite upset, so I grabbed a chair from the nearby cafe and told him to sit down. The “bleeding nose guy (BNG)” said that his nose just started bleeding (profusely). I asked him if this had happened to him before and he said yes. Then I asked him if he’d seen a doctor about it, and he said no. I didn’t really know what to do, so I went up to the Asian couple running the cafe and said “there’s a guy here who’s really sick, should we call an ambulance?”. They said, “Oh is he still there?”. I’m like WTF, you left a guy bleeding on the street??!! I felt bad because I didn’t know what to do. The Asian cafe owners were like, “Why don’t you (BNG) go sit over there (away from my cafe, in the park)”. They said it would cost him money if they call an ambulance and then I thought, what if this guy has no money? (I’ve since found out about ambulance fees in NSW) Anyway, they gave him some extra serviettes to soak up the blood. By now BNG’s nose had stopped bleeding and he said he didn’t live too far away. I told him he should really see a doctor and left him there. What was I to do? Walk a complete stranger to his house? Maybe if I was a bloke.
The next day, I asked a guy I was studying with (who was in the Navy) what he would have done. If he was bleeding REALLY badly, I should have called 000. He said that if it worried me that much, I should do a first aid course. I thought that sounded like a good idea. So, if the BNG is reading this, sorry I left you there. I hope you are OK.