Woman Backed for Continuing to Work Whilst Colleague Was Having a Seizure

A woman has been backed for continuing to work whilst her colleague had a seizure.

On November 2, a woman explained her co-worker "collapsed" and had a seizure at work. Several co-workers rushed over to help but the Mumsnet user, keepnonworkn, stayed at her desk and kept working.

After the ambulance arrived, another colleague accused the original poster (OP) of being in the wrong, but she argues there was nothing she could have done.

Newsweek spoke to a psychotherapist who describes her response as "understandable in so many ways."

It seems other users agree too as the poll results revealed 77 percent of 2,256 people voted "you are not being unreasonable."

The OP explained: "To me, it seems like everything was being handled, and since we had some tight deadlines to meet for our clients I went back to work while this was going on.

"After she was taken away in the ambulance one of my other co-workers approached me. She said what I did was wrong and I should have stopped working and tried to help her since there was a crisis.

"I don't see how me crowding around with all the others would have been any help though. I don't have any medical training and wouldn't have known what else to do except call an ambulance, which someone else was already doing."

Newsweek spoke to Charlotte Fox Weber who is the author of What We Want.

She said: "This response is understandable in so many ways. As she points out, crowding around someone and vying for rescuer positions really isn't helpful at all.

"There's a lot about optics in this story. The coworker who criticized this woman is telling her how she should seem to others, the emotional displays—and it's rather scolding. There's a lot about how things appear when it comes to emotions in the workplace.

"I wonder if there is embedded rivalry in this instance. The scolding remark seems like an envious attack."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health agency of the United States, has shared what to do for any type of seizure:

• Stay with the person until the seizure ends and he or she is fully awake. After it ends, help the person sit in a safe place. Once they are alert and able to communicate, tell them what happened in very simple terms
• Comfort the person and speak calmly
• Check to see if the person is wearing a medical bracelet or other emergency information
• Keep yourself and other people calm
• Offer to call a taxi or another person to make sure the person gets home safely

Many users have backed the original poster but that doesn't stop them from thinking her actions were "cold."

One response said: "I get your reasoning, but it does look cold and honestly a bit odd to glance over then crack on with work without acknowledging what's going on. I'd have probably asked someone if there was anything I could do to help, then if told no, go back to my desk."

"Think no more about it. Your judgemental colleague has no right to say anything. I worked on an open floor with 99 other professional colleagues. Our designated & trained first aider always dealt with situations like this. We carried on as usual. It didn't mean we didn't care, it just meant that our first aider & maybe a couple of others was entirely appropriate to be helpful," said another.

Newsweek was not able to verify the details of the case.