Feeling Very Guilty
By concept001
@concept001 (430)
India
December 28, 2010 4:07am CST
Hello everyone. I am feeling very guilty. Everything is seeming very bad so I decided to post this discussion. On 24th me and my friend went for a long drive on Highways to celebrate Christmas. When we were returning after 2-3 hours of drive I saw a person lying on the highway. It was very cold and fogy. Because of Christmas the road was very busy. My friend was driving the car suddenly to our great surprise we saw a person lying on the road with a motor bike. My friend slowed down the car. I saw the man I guess some vehicle had hit him. He was badly injured I don't know whether he was dead or alive. Many vehicles were coming and going no body wanted to stop and help. I told my friend lets get down and see. But he drove the car very speedily and and told me it would be risky to stop because police will question us and the next day was Christmas. After some time every thing was normal. But next day in the morning when I was watching news I saw that the person was a doctor who was returning to home. In the news it was revealed that his body was lying on the Highway for 10 hours and due to cold he died later in the morning. The news channel also revealed that this man was newly married and had a wife. This news made me feel very guilty. I don't know but I am feeling very bad. I am thinking that it was Christmas and he was a husband, a son of someone if we would have helped him he would have been survived. I am not able to join my friends in this festive season. So, I decided at last to post this here and seek your advises.
3 people like this
8 responses
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
29 Dec 10
If posted this dicussion in the hopes of finding sympathy, I am afraid that you will not find any in me. I understand that you could not stop to help because your friend was driving, but I do not understand why you did not call the authorities to report the accident. If you too were afraid of being questioned and detained on Christmas, you could have made the call without identifying yourself.
It is sad testiment to our society to know that a man lay there dying for 10 hours because no one wanted to get involved. You are not the only one who should feel guilty. Every person who passed the doctor by should feel a little responsible and guilty for not extending enough human compassion to stop long enough to ask the man if he was ok.
My heart goes out to the doctor's family.
@sid556 (30959)
• United States
29 Dec 10
Yep. Passing the blame and making excuses is just plain BS. Living with the guilt is nothing compared to what this man's family is living with. I get it that the guilt won't bring this man back but it should direct this person to learn from it. As long as there are excuses and blame being passed then nothing is being learned.
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
30 Dec 10
Again I agree with you sid. If everyone would reach out to help their fellow man and stop blaming everyone else for his/her wrong doing, then the world would be a much nicer place to live in.
It is time for all of us to stand up and take responsibility for our choices!
1 person likes this
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
30 Dec 10
It boggles my mind. I too, have tried to understand everyone else's thinking on this issue. I just don't get it. Like you, the guilt would have done eaten at me terribly and I would have had to contact the family and beg forgiveness for my lack of compassion and action that could have saved their loved ones life.
I find it hard to console concept on here, when my heart aches so badly for the family.
That was what I said in the beginning: a lousy, anonymous phone call could have made a difference. It could have saved a life.
1 person likes this
@gorgeoustill (66)
• Philippines
28 Dec 10
This was really tragic but it's way beyond your control. If i were in your shoes i might have done the same thing not to sound evil but we need to consider the possible consequences. Maybe it's his time to meet thy creator so don't let the guilt kill you, everything has a purpose. What matters is your intention, you wanted to help..but then again it's out of your control.
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
29 Dec 10
I have no doubt that God had decided that it was the doctors time to die, but I also believe we are suppose to reach out and help our fellow man when we can, even when it may be inconvenient or troublesome to us. You have heard the old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions, have you not? Our actions are never out of our control. Have you ever read the story of the Good Samaratan in the Bible?
1 person likes this
@marrie1 (255)
• United States
31 Dec 10
Oh man! I am so sorry. Well as I read in a talk given at church once, "don't worry about the things you cannot control." If you had tried to stop the friend you might have caused an accident. Yeah I I think you might have called 911 and seen if the person would have been ok but like I said don't worry about the things you have no control of.
Take care
@Susanayako1988 (350)
• China
28 Dec 10
It's a sad story.May God bless that doctor. Sometimes it is really hard to make the decision. I have seen news that one helped another and then was regarded as the one who had hurt the other. I know it is a very hard choice. I don't dare to stop the car, but at least I will call the police immediately and ask them to deal with the situation.
@deepikavivek10 (133)
• India
29 Dec 10
It is quite natural that you are feeling guilty. But all said and done past is past. As somebody else said there are people with bad intentions also pretending to be injured. But there could have been one thing you could have done. You could have probably called the police and just informed them.
Either ways I would suggest you to just relax and do something that you really like so that you forget the incident.
Take care
@deedee328 (1122)
• United States
29 Dec 10
dibs, are you human? How can you not feel guilty in that situation. We as humans are not perfect, but we are suppose to have compassion for those who are hurt, sick, and dying. Feeling guilty is how we know what we did was wrong and enables us to make better choices in the future. If we dont feel guilty about things like this, how then are we to learn and grow. You would have to be a really cold-hearted person not to feel guilty about the loss of a human life especially if you think that you may have been able to have done something that would have spared that life.
1 person likes this
@kingparker (9673)
• United States
28 Dec 10
It was pretty bad, if I were you in such situation, I might feel the same, and I felt guilty to myself. Well, what was done is done, you can't blame yourself forever. It was just a lesson within your lifetime, so, if you want to help somebody next time, go with your heart.
@narnia007 (1050)
• India
28 Dec 10
Yes it is very sad indeed.But you don't have to be guilty.Its the police and the government that has treated us to such an extent that we fear to help a dying man.May GOD bless the doctor.I would have called the ambulance or police at that seen.It's risky in our present arena to attend to person on road.But surely this fear must be away from our hearts to benefit all people.
