Blindsided

One of my rides on a Uber recently led me to think about starting this blog actually. He was this young guy who started doing Uber full time for 3 weeks at that point.

He happily launched into his tale as he was still recovering from the shock of the experience even though it happened a week before. He had picked up this Malay girl from Brickfields who's destination was the emergency section of a nearby hospital on a Sunday night at 10pm.

Upon reaching the pick up point, he called her to say he had arrived but had driven a few meters ahead as there was no parking. He then asked her to look for him when she said she couldn't. He then demanded, "Why not? I'm not very far away and for me to turn back won't make sense!"

Her soft reply, "I can't come to you because I'm blind..."

He immediately felt so remorseful and profusely apologized, stopped his car and went to look for her.

As he started the journey, she started to draw deep breaths and hyperventilate. He quickly looked at her and asked what was wrong. She was having an asthma attack which was why she quickly needed to get to the emergency section of the hospital!

He was like, FML what if something happens to her in the car, why didn't she call an ambulance (let's just say taking a Uber is faster than an ambulance in Malaysia)... He drove like crazy, thankful it was a Sunday night without much traffic and he got there is record time. He jumped out of his car and called the nurse to bring a wheelchair to his passenger, all the while panicking like crazy.

I couldn't help but laugh at his story telling as he reenacted his reactions. I said it might be helpful to learn CPR or some basic first aid in case something like this happens again. He said he'd rather hope that it doesn't happen again but was more humbled that this girl was being independent, living on her own and getting her own transport to the hospital without relying on other despite being blind.

I also praised him of his kindness not to stop and drop her off despite his fear in that situation. I then shared I had gone for Dialogue in the Dark, where I experienced how to navigate from one place to another in complete darkness. It was a good reminder that we take things like our sight for granted. If I remember correctly, it is better to grasp their elbow or let them hold on to you than holding them by their wrist or palms. For more info, Dialogue in the Dark has a centre at Jaya One in Petaling Jaya that he could visit one day.

So that was my bit of contribution to him :)