Today I had a meeting with the blogger who writes Trainjotting. I have read Trainjotting for a while and have always been impressed with the high quality, focus, and frequency of posts there. We’ll call this blogger TJ I emailed TJ and set up a meeting so we could get to know each other.

The last post I read on Trainjotting, TJ had written how he and some other commuters had assisted an elderly woman who had mistakenly gotten on the wrong metro-north line (I cringe just writing that).

Every once in a while, as a NYC commuter, you will run into these situations and need to make a judgment call on whether you are going to help, let someone else help, decide this person may not need help but is actually scamming people, or even – yes - ‘the hell with it I am NOT going to be late today!’ - It’s a judgment call which, when chosen poorly, New Yorkers get a lot of anecdotal grief about.

As a metro-north blogger who maintains metro-north schedule pages, you would think I would be on time for my train to go meet TJ. Ha. I missed my train and had to drive to Stamford for an express – whose doors were getting ready to close when I scrambled onto the platform sans ticket.

From Grand Central I went to the 6 line subway platform, which is a line I dont take often, and mistakenly got on an express train and jumped off. At that point, I saw a distressed Latina woman sitting on the platform near the yellow line, being assisted by a Latino man in a construction hat.

I asked if they needed help. The man said she had given blood today and fainted.

At this point I should mention that for 7 years I was a full-time phlebotomist (someone who draws blood). I was a hospital phlebotomist, so I took relatively small test tubes of blood for testing vs, say, a Red Cross nurse or a nurse who draws blood for backup before surgery (which was this woman’s case), which is usually a pint or more.

I have had a few people faint on me (including one woman over 200 lbs with a needle in her arm), and am familiar with the simple procedure for fainting recovery – lay the patient on her back, and elevate her legs to increase blood pressure to the brain. For me, it’s always worked instantly and I’ve never needed to break open the smelling salts.

So, I advised the man to lay the woman on her back and elevate her legs. He didn’t do this, but I didn’t really worry about it as she was already conscious and decided not to be a nudge about it. Besides, she was already sitting on a NYC subway platform, I wouldn’t blame her for not wanting to lay down on it unless it was absolutely necessary.

At that point, about 3-4 female cops showed up, I didn’t note if they were MTA or NYPD. They took the woman over to the stairs and sat her down and called for a paramedic. She looked like she was getting worse rather than better, so I told the police to lay her on her back and elevate her legs, and walked away – again not wanting to be a know-it-all nudge.

Again, my advice was ignored without comment or acknowledgment. My train pulled up to the platform but I didn’t get on it, and walked over to see how she was doing. She was losing consciousness – her eyes were closed and mouth was agape, and she was white as a sheet.

At this point, I got assertive. I looked the cop in the eye and said in a very forceful manner “Listen, I’m a phlebotomist – you need to lay this woman on her back and hold her legs over her head to increase blood pressure to her brain right now!”.

I kinda laughed at myself as I said this, as I realized that the cop had no idea what a phlebomomist was. I was also laughing to myself because the only piece of emergency medical advice which you could possibly qualify a phlebotomist to give is what to do when someone faints from having their blood drawn. Outside of that, were pretty much useless.

The cop said nothing, but immediately did as I instructed as the woman was clearly going to go down, and I walked away again. A couple of minutes later I walked back over, and it was clear the woman was feeling much better. The cop looked at me and said very sincerely “Thank you for your help!” and the woman smiled and said “Oh thank you I feel 100% better and wish I could stay in this position all afternoon!”.

I got on my train with a big smile on my face, glad that I had genuinely helped someone and not just been a know-it-all- pain-in-the-ass. I met TJ a couple minutes later at McCormack’s Irish Pub on 3^rd Ave and he bought me a black and tan while I told him the story.

We had a great conversation about our websites, and it looks like we may be collaborating in the future. TJ, as I had suspected, is a professional writer. After TJ left, I continued downing black-and-tans and am enjoying some well deserved fish and chips at the bar right now.

Here is the MTA Police First Aid Training Video for ‘What To Do When Someone Faints’:

Update:  An AMNY reporter nearly fainted on the subway.