Sad & Bad

Called 911 on a guy in the bushes unable to get up yesterday evening. I tried to help him, but it was challenging. The guy nicely dressed in a light blue shirt and khaki shorts with a kind face had too much booze he admitted and simply wanted to go home. He pleaded with me not to call the cops! I got him to scoot over towards the bench and crawl kinda on it and eventually the ambulance came with 3 friendly, strong guys. Since he could not walk on his own they took him, against his will to St. Vincent Hospital. He pleaded with them to just give him a lift home "just a few blocks." No, they could not do that. "I will be worse off at the hospital, don't arrest me, I have no record." I felt sad and bad. Should I have gone home and gotten my van and attempted to give him a ride home? Would that have been enabling? How far to go when offering help? Was calling 911 truly helpful to the man? His knees and elbows were bruised and scratched, I guess from the fall in to the thorny bushes, his fly was open. With thunder's promise of a rain storm, for a moment I almost believed I did the right thing. But the storm passed us by, again, hm ...