Hey all I just came across an emergency situation irl that I felt useless in because of how slowly I was thinking. Basically it was someone getting an epileptic seizure and I had the info in my head for what to do but I did end up freezing a bit before I did anything. Really didn’t like it. The person is fine now but if I had reacted faster, we might have been able to prevent a couple problems.
I’ve been in other emergencies before where I had to call the shots but I guess I want to think faster and keep it consistent at a higher level, and I want to improve on it for future scenarios, but what can I do to do that?
Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for everyone’s replies, I’ll be looking into a routine to acclimate myself with these kinds of situations
I think you basically just need experience/practice. Imagine lifeguarding: they don’t just explain it to you and then hope you remember what to do the first time you see someone you think might be drowning. They train you and have you ‘rescue’ people in a controlled environment, so that when the real thing happens, you’re performing something you’ve done many times.
To put it another way, you don’t want to think faster. You want to have already thought about it, and already prepared for what to do.
Depending on the extent of what you want to do, maybe a few friends and you can try to rehearse your response. Have them simulate (without telling you exactly when) some of the signs of a seizure, then try to identify it and give their phone a call as if you were calling emergency services.
If you want to go further you can look into various first aid certs. Most classes are like $20-60, and they’ll be able to prepare you far better than anything else.
For context: Not the same thing exactly but I had to get first aid certifications in the context of bringing small groups of people into semi-remote areas of nature. Type of thing where you probably have cell service but it may take hours for help to arrive. We did a lot of practice on each other.
As someone who used to be a lifeguard, it’s 99% boredom and 1% pure adrenaline. I only had to jump on once and it was for a toddler at swim class. They didn’t have floaties on and were sitting on the side of the pool. The instructor was in the water with another kid with no floats and the one on the side of the pool slipped in and sank. The instructor couldn’t just let go of the other child so I jumped in and pulled the kid out. There was no thinking just doing. I didn’t realize until afterward I’d cut up my foot relatively bad when I reacted but couldn’t even feel it getting the kid.