Wareagle just mentioned starting a new thread on this and I was composing a response and thought "yeah, there's probably a lot of thoughts about this"
I'm amazed at the stories I've read, seen and heard over the years of people surviving extraordinarily traumatic situations. Usually people who were unprepared and untrained as well. Situations from natural disasters, being lost in forests or mountains or blizzards, urban disasters, criminal and terrorist attacks, and often with debilitating or life-threatening injuries. So often, it seems like the refusal to give in, the will to live is what kept people going. In many cases I've heard that thoughts of loved ones were the motivation people needed or simply seeing that no one else was taking control of a situation, so the person did. There's been tons of stuff published on informal or natural leadership. I'm sure people would have done better with some level of training, obviously.
I was involved in a car accident once where another car hit a SUV hard enough that it flew across the road and hit my car. Luckily, I was uninjured but had to crawl very gingerly through a broken window to get out. I walked away and sat down on the curb to sort of collect myself, the entire intersection was filled with wreckage and the guy in the SUV and a passenger in the car that caused it were injured slightly. One motorist got out of his car, attended to the injured until the EMT's arrived and directed traffic, all very professionally, until the police arrived. Then he came over and checked on me. He did an awesome job of assessing the needs and addressing the situation. He must have had some kind of training, but by the time the police were done with me, I never got a chance to ask him or thank him, he'd moved on. But, I'd love to hear other people's perspectives here
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