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Q: What should you do if you suspect a homeless person might be dead?
Today during lunch I sat on a park bench opposite another park bench with a homeless person lying on it. Their face was covered with an item of clothing and I first thought they were asleep. But as I sat there eating my lunch for 20 minutes, I didn't see any signs of life. It looked like he/she wasn't breathing. I realised that I didn't know what to do in this situation and what the procedure is. Should I call the police? Would I be brought to the police station for questioning? Would they look at my visa/work history here? Could I get deported if they found out I worked on an F visa? In the end, I just hoped for the best and left.Pretty awful, I know!
Dude:
I hate to sound like a heartless son of a motherless goat, but this is China. People do not help people for a reason, one of them being that the good Samaritan is often penalized or treated as the malefactor. We have all heard of the judge in Southern China that held responsible the man who took an injured lady to the hospital.
If I were in your situation, I would say a prayer and move away. It is BEST to avoid any police attention, especially where dead bodies are concerned.
Paranoid me, this is how I fear it could turn out:: Foreigner reports dead homeless person. Taken in for questioning. All visa and paperwork okay. Family hears that foreigner found "papa" and accuse him of killing or leading "papa" to his death (even though they haven't heard from him in years). Foreigner gets taken to court and is ordered to pay family compensation. After all, why else would he report the body unless he was responsible for the poor man's death.
For what it is worth, I think you did the right thing.
Check the damn wrist pulse at the least for the love of god or better yet check the jugular and people flame me. Who cares if they kick you out of the country you do not let someone lay there dying because it is inconveniencing for you check there pulse and call an ambulance for the love of god what is wrong with you people. You check to see if he is sleeping just bump in to his bench or him if he does not wake up then check the plus them call an ambulance if you need s you to them leave that simple, and you should not have to ask that question of yourself unless someone has a gun to your head it is never correct to watch someone die or to just walk away, You made your chose so why does it matter now. And god I hope you are joking because as sick as that would be it would still be better.
PS odds are he was not dead and if he had be dead after 20 minutes there would of bean no way to save him or he could of been dying but now you will never know and that is why you check the pulse
Jíliú.hé:
Whoa I got down voted for saying at least check the pulse. Now I might be I holier than tha when it comes to this topic but that is probable because I plan to save life’s in the future.
HugAPanda:
In a civilized society, that is absolutely what you would do, Julio. But in China... you are a foreigner and foreigners are always at fault. Since you don't know how he died (if he is dead), if he was murdered.... you could go to jail. If you want to do the right thing, live up to your morals, perhaps China isn't right for you. Unfortunate, but true.
It's a hard one
As GuilinRaf said This is China and things are different to what you know at home
You cant judge the way things are done in China just try to understand
personally if I was on my own without my Family I would have checked it out further
and it would not be checking for a pulse it would have been a shake of their shoulder and 1 Yuan to offer if they responded.
if know response I'm dumb enough to make a phone call.
But thats what I would do
what a normal person would do is another thing
Don't feel bad about it we all act different in these situations.
and right and wrong really does not come into it
It's what you a mentally able to do
philbravery:
It's not a plan mate
It is that we are all wired differently and do things differently
you can't just say this is what I would do
It's what you are capable of doing and not everybody can do what others do
.
God I hope this makes sence
Not awful at all coffi, you did the right thing, and to be honest, you really don't know if they were dead or not, if it was on a park bench then most like it would be found later by a park cleaner or whatever, if they were alive you'd feel like an idiot, remember white wine is cheap and strong here, you don't know the situation. What could you have done, call the police, ambulance, dead is dead, nothing is going to take the place of that, can't save the dead
And for kicks and giggles and something I know I'll be thumb downed for, when in doubt poke'em with a stick
Last year in Beijing NO.10 subway,I found a man lying at the door with no signal of life for a long time.
Then I call the subway sos tel,I told the detial to the stuff .
The stuff of the subway said they will dispatch people to give him help.I didn't know the result,and i hope all is well.
