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A woman took to Reddit this week to share a situation that occurred between her and her husband after he lost consciousness on their front lawn.
Redditor u/ Chance_Suit_298 wrote about the experience on the subreddit "Am I The A*****e" in a post that has now been voted on over 8,000 times.
She explained that her husband is squeamish—something she has known for years—saying he does not like blood and gore and has fainted a couple of times in the past. She said on a recent occasion, her husband passed out after their young son scraped his knee while playing in the front lawn.
"All of a sudden, I heard my kid wailing and I rushed outside. He had fallen and scraped his knee. I saw my husband head over before me which makes sense because he was closer than I was, but when he squatted down to help, he fainted," she wrote. "The exact timing is unclear. I don't know if he squatted and then fainted or fainted mid-squat, I just know he was passed out on the grass by the time I got there."
According to the Cleveland Clinic, fainting, or syncope as it is referred to medically, occurs in one-third of the general population.
According to the Mayo Clinic, one reason why some people faint at the sight of blood is due to a condition called Vasovagal syncope. This can occur, the clinic said when a person's body overreacts to certain triggers like the sight of blood or "extreme emotional distress."
The Mayo Clinic said that while the condition is typically harmless, requiring no treatment, fainting can be a sign of a more serious medical condition.
The Redditor said when her husband passed out, her son was still screaming because of his injury so she picked him up and brought him inside leaving her husband on the lawn.
"When I was dressing his wound, my husband came in a couple minutes later angry that I left him unconscious and unattended on our lawn," she wrote.
She explained that the family does not live in a "dangerous neighborhood" and that she did not feel there was risk for "hypothermia/heat stroke."
Commenters thought the woman was in the wrong for leaving her husband unconscious and unattended.
"YTA," one person wrote. "Spontaneously falling unconscious is a more pressing emergency than a crying kid with a scrape."
"YTA. You didn't know your husband just fainted, he could've had a stroke or heart attack. You should have called an ambulance," said another.
Others saw the situation from both perspectives and understood the predicament the mother found herself in.
"[T]o me it seems obvious that OP's thought process was 'remove bleeding child to avoid causing further issues, then check on husband.' Do I think that she should have checked on him first? Yes. Do I think that she's an a**hole for it? No," a more sympathetic commenter wrote.
"I am kind of mixed on this," another person said. "If my husband fainted at the sight of blood to the point a cut did him in, I would remove the kid first before trying to wake him up. Otherwise, he will just faint again and I will STILL have a screaming toddler and a fainted husband. I really feel like OP is in a no-win situation here."
The Redditor said it only took a short while to dress her son's wounds and that she would have checked on her husband after but he said she "should never leave someone unconscious and unattended."
"He thinks I should have left our son with him while I go inside to get the bandages and dress his wound on the lawn OR take my son inside, get the bandages, and bring him back out to dress his wound on the lawn. I guess the last idea makes sense, but as a mom with a crying kid, I didn't think about it that deeply."
"[W]e're judging from out of the situation," one commenter wrote. "She was under a lot of stress."
Newsweek contacted u/ Chance_Suit_298 for comment.
