What has society come to?

A medical student who corresponds with me wrote the following. It has been edited for length.

She was shopping at a mall with her husband and their children.

As I walked underneath the escalators, I heard a horrific sound. I looked up and saw a body cartwheeling down. I ran to front of the escalator to push the stop button. An 80 or 90 year old gentleman was lying partly on and partly under his walker. He seemed unconscious with blood all over the place. I said "Sir, sir," saw his fingers move, and called 911.

A black man from the top of the escalator made eye contact with me and came running down to see how he could help. He hesitated, his face and body language screaming fear, but he came over. He knew he had to once we made eye contact because I was the only one actually doing something.

A security guard who was heading to work arrived. He had no gloves, no radio, nothing. Why wasn't anyone from security coming? What's the point of security cameras? Wasn't there anyone watching? I turned around to see who else could help. About a dozen people were just standing there with their cell phones taking pictures and videos. Not a soul asked me if they could call 911. In fact when I called 911 a second time, the dispatcher asked me if there were more people with me because I had placed the only two calls.

The old man’s wife came down after staring from the second floor for what felt an eternity, and she is just like “ok whatever”—showing no concern. She clearly had not been on the escalator with him.

My husband, a surgeon, joined me, and within couple minutes the paramedics finally arrived. With every drop of blood dripping from the gentleman face and hands all I could think of was that he must be anticoagulated. I was worried about a head bleed, C-spine, ribs, and maybe even hips. People gathered on the second floor with their cell phones pointing and looking down. I lost it. I dropped a few F-bombs. My kids showed more concern than any other person.

Some research has shown that despite training, people still will not help. No one demonstrated an ounce of concern except the black guy who was freaking out and saying, "Oh Jesus, have mercy."

Mall security finally showed up wearing their blue first aid gloves. The victim was still on the escalator at an incline facing down, bleeding, stuck within the walker, and the walker stuck at angle to the side of escalator and impossible to mobilize.

The old guy recovered consciousness prior to paramedics arriving. While awaiting the paramedics, I heard his wife say to a security guard, "There were no warning signs about walking devices on the escalator." I couldn't believe it. I hope my sweet old gentleman is ok. As he awoke, He smiled at me.

Even the paramedics had trouble extricating him, and paramedics do this every day.

As the gentleman was loaded on the stretcher, people still had their phones out despite me cursing them 15 minutes before in Spanish and English. A Hispanic guy was going to town with the video few feet away from me and channeling his reporting self. I could hear him describing in Spanish what was going on and even saying (to the video) that he believes my husband and I know each other because we have good work dynamics (insert eye roll emoji here).

Not even a 90 year old face down on an escalator with a walker stopped people from doing their phone thing. So sad.

What is wrong with society? What kind of world do we live in?