Don't count on strangers in medical emergencies, especially if you're African-American

I think some of this might be due to people not being able to decide quickly enough what to do.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/cu-dco041416.php

Public Release: 14-Apr-2016
Don't count on strangers in medical emergencies, especially if you're African-American
Cornell University

In the first study of its kind, Cornell sociologists have found that people who have a medical emergency in a public place can't necessarily rely on the kindness of strangers. Only 2.5 percent of people, or 1 in 39, got help from strangers before emergency medical personnel arrived, in research published April 14 in the American Journal of Public Health.

For African-Americans, these dismal findings only get worse. African-Americans were less than half as likely as Caucasians to get help from a bystander, regardless of the type of symptoms or illness they were suffering - only 1.8 percent, or fewer than 1 in 55 African-Americans, received assistance. For Caucasians, the corresponding number was 4.2 percent, or 1 in 24.

People in lower-income and densely populated counties were also less likely to get help, the researchers said. Conversely, those in less-densely populated counties with average socioeconomic levels were most likely to get assistance.

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York Cornwell points out that the types of support bystanders could offer require little to no training, and could include offering a glass of water, covering someone with a blanket, putting pressure on a wound or assisting with medications.

"We find evidence that bystanders can provide help in a huge range of scenarios, but the rates of assistance are so incredibly low," she said.

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